Fitness to Teach rules review
Introduction
We are carrying out a review of our Fitness to Teach Rules.
These are the rules that set out the legal framework for when and how we investigate Fitness to Teach referrals and how the outcomes of cases are determined.
As the independent regulator for teachers in Scotland, we maintain a register of teachers and investigate serious concerns about the conduct or professional competence of teachers on the register or applying to be on it, through our Fitness to Teach process.
We need to have Fitness to Teach Rules in place to meet the requirements of our governing legislation and to ensure we carry out our fitness to teach work fairly and lawfully. The Fitness to Teach process was introduced in 2012 when our legislation came into force and this is when our first set of Fitness to Teach Rules was published.
Watch the video below to find out more about how our Fitness to Teach process works.
Our current Fitness to Teach Rules were enacted in 2017. It is now time for us to review these rules.
The purpose of reviewing the Rules is to:
- ensure the Rules reflect current law and best regulatory practice
- make the Fitness to Teach process work as efficiently as it can, while still meeting the public interest and ensuring fairness.
Our current rules will remain in place until the review has concluded and new rules are implemented.
Professional Standards Authority
Independent review
In tandem with this work, we have commissioned an independent review by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) of the performance and efficiency of the Fitness to Teach (conduct) process in the context of the statutory framework within which it sits. The results of the review will help inform the changes we need to make to the Fitness to Teach process and the rules that govern it.
Principles of good regulation
Our governing legislation requires us to perform our functions in a way that represents best regulatory practice, which includes ensuring that our actions are:
- proportionate;
- accountable;
- transparent and consistent; and
- are targeted only where action is needed.
This conforms to what the PSA describes as ‘right-touch’ regulation, which is informed by these and other principles, details of which are available in the Standards of Good Regulation that they use to measure the performance of the regulators that they oversee.
It is with reference to these standards, specifically adapted standards 14-18, that the PSA will review our rules and process. They will be seeking input from stakeholders to help them with this work.
We expect them to provide us with a report of their findings and recommendations in the early part of 2025.
If you would be interested in sharing your views with the PSA to assist them with their review, please email douglas.bilton@professionalstandards.org.uk for further information.
Call for views
Separate to the PSA's work, we are also seeking your views.
The development of new or revised Rules will involve three main phases of work:
- Phase 1 – Discovery and Analysis
- Phase 2 – Development of draft Rules and associated policies
- Phase 3 – Implementation
As part of our discovery and analysis phase, we would like to hear from interested parties on general themes surrounding our rules and processes to help us to determine how the overall framework is working.
There will be opportunities to provide further input on the detail of the proposed changes as the review progresses.
Who should respond?
We are particularly interested to hear from people who:
- need to access or operate our rules and guidance as part of their job, or
- who have participated in the fitness to teach process in any capacity, or have assisted someone else to do so.
What do we want to hear about?
We are not asking any specific questions at this early stage in the review process, but we would like you to share your views or experiences based on the following themes:
1. Interpreting and applying the Fitness to Teach Rules
It is important for anyone involved in the Fitness to Teach process to be familiar with the Fitness to Teach rules, particularly those subject to investigation and any representative. We publish our rules and the policies that underpin them on our website, including our threshold policy and publication policy, which we highlight to those who are involved in our Fitness to Teach process.
Do you have any further comments to make in relation to interpreting and applying the Fitness to Teach rules?
2. The resources we provide to support understanding and participation
We publish information to help people understand and participate in our Fitness to Teach work. As well as information about the Rules themselves and the process followed, we publish details about:
- upcoming hearings and recent decisions
- practical information for people involved in cases and
- guidance on how to make a referral.
We have also published a number of practice statements designed to help guide and inform best practice and promote GTC Scotland’s commitment to our organisational values and principles, as well as best regulatory practice.
Do you have any suggestions for these or any other resources we can provide to support understanding and participation in the process?
3. Experiences of participating in the Fitness to Teach process
We are aware that the experiences of those who participate in our process vary considerably. For example, this can depend on whether a hearing takes place and if it is online or in person, the subject matter of the referral and the people involved.
We would like to hear from those who have participated in the process about what your experiences were .
4. Ensuring that we respect the rights of children and young people who are involved in the process
The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 requires public bodies to ensure that their policies and processes are compatible with rights of children and young people, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although we are not a public body, we have certain statutory obligations in common with them.
We sometimes need to involve children and young people in our investigations by taking statements from them, and sometimes we ask them to give evidence at a hearing because, where their evidence is key, we can experience challenges about relying on their statements alone. This tends to happen in the cases that raise the biggest potential public protection concerns.
Understandably, children and young people and their parents or carers are often reluctant to become involved in our process.
What can we do to ensure that the rights of children and young people are respected and protected and the impact of involvement minimised?
5. General feedback on the Fitness to Teach Rules
Do you have any other views that you would like to provide?
How to respond
You can complete this online form or download the Word questionnaire and either email your response to gtcs@gtcs.org.uk putting ‘Fitness to Teach Rules review - call for views’ in the subject line, or print off the document and post to:
General Teaching Council for Scotland
Clerwood House
96 Clermiston Road
Edinburgh
EH12 6UT
If you need us to provide the call for views in an alternative format, please email us at gtcs@gtcs.org.uk.
Deadline for responses
The deadline for responses is 12 November 2024 at 5.00pm.
What will we do with your response?
We will publish a summary of the responses that we receive, and we will use the information to inform how we proceed in the second phase of the project.