COUNTY council chiefs must pay out more than £800,000 to a Lancashire teacher who was made to reapply for her job while on sick leave with cancer - then sacked.

Anne Healey had worked as an early years specialist for Lancashire County Council's schools improvement service since 2012 after a successful career in teaching, an employment tribunal heard.

But she was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and this led to lengthy periods of sickness absence while she underwent chemotherapy, the Manchester hearing was told.

County education officials undertook an internal restructure of her department in 2018, while Mrs Healey was still off sick.

The early years specialist was eventually interviewed for a leadership role in the early years consultant team. She failed to secure the post but was offered what she considered to be a lesser position.

In an appeal letter after this decision, she wrote that the original job had been given to someone who reported directly to her, while she was on sick leave arising from her cancer treatment.

She added: "No reasonable adjustments were put in place at interview for my own role..... The reluctance of the council and in particular those with influence in this particular decision to allow me back to work has compounded my position and are similarly discriminatory.

"The role I have been offered / allotted is clearly a demotion, is on less favourable terms and is not acceptable.

"The reallocation of my role to someone other than me is also an act of discrimination and a predetermined decision, and, as I understand it, the entire procedure / restructure is outside of the usual transformation process."

The employment tribunal, which took place in August 2021, was told after she did not accept her new role, Mrs Healey was dismissed.

She lodged claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination against Lancashire County Council, which succeeded.

Employment Judge Mark Leach ruled: "(The) competitive interview process amounted to unfavourable treatment because of something arising from the claimant’s disability. That something was her long absence from work and treatment for cancer."

The judge also decided that Mrs Healey had been subjected to indirect discrimination by reason of the competitive interview process and officers had failed to make reasonable adjustments for her condition during the affair.

Judge Leach also ruled that all claims relating to her line manager and a senior manager, considered at the same hearing, should be dismissed.

His ruling in Mrs Healey's favour included a £14,688 basic award based on salary, a personal injury payout of £45,000, an award for injury to feelings of £18,000, aggravated damages of £12,000, loss of earnings up to the hearing and until August 2032 of £333,572, and pension losses of £112,477. The total award, with interest, is £800,713.

The tribunal heard Mrs Healey was absent from work for the whole of 2015 while she endured operations and a strong course of chemotherapy.

She then returned to work in May 2016 but in 2017 it was discovered the cancer had returned and she required more treatment. Mrs Healey was then absent due to sickness relating to cancer until early 2019.