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Before providing answers to the specific questions you have asked, we consider it to be of assistance to provide some general information about GTC Scotland and its role in order to put the information requested into context.

GTC Scotland is an independent, statutory body. Its core function is to keep a register of teachers and set and regulate the standards of conduct and competence expected of its registrants through a fitness to teach process. GTC Scotland is a professional regulator – GTC Scotland is not on the frontline of child and public protection - it does not deliver education or provide services to children and families.

A person who employs a registered teacher in an educational establishment must notify GTC Scotland if they dismiss the registered teacher on grounds of misconduct or incompetence or if a registered teacher resigns or leaves employment in circumstances where such a dismissal was possible. However, these are the only circumstances in which an employer is legally obliged to refer a case to GTC Scotland and no other person, agency or body is obliged by law to make a fitness to teach referral to GTC Scotland. GTC Scotland does, however, receive some fitness to teach referrals from members of the public, Disclosure Scotland and criminal justice agencies.

In the region of 40 fitness to teach referrals are received by GTC Scotland from members of the public annually. A majority of these referrals are made by parents/carers of pupils and almost all relate to local authority school teachers because the vast majority of registered teachers employed as teachers are employed by local authorities. Allegations referred by members of the public cover a variety of issues, including neighbourhood and personal grievance/disputes, colleague bullying/grievances, public expression of views through social media and, very occasionally, allegations of historic child abuse. Referrals often also relate to isolated incidents. Most referrals received are made many months (and sometimes years) after the events alleged have taken place and our experience to date is that GTC Scotland is very rarely the first point of contact. On average, we investigate one third of the member of the public referrals that we receive.

When GTC Scotland receives a referral regarding a registered teacher, a decision is taken whether to investigate that referral based on whether the issues raised may have a bearing on the individual’s fitness to teach. Such decisions are taken in line with our Threshold Policy, which sets out what GTC Scotland will investigate under its fitness to teach procedures. The process is governed by the GTC Scotland Fitness to Teach Rules 2017. Whether or not a referral is investigated, any known employer of a teacher (as noted, this is usually a local authority) is informed of the allegation and the decision. In local authority cases, this is done through our appointed fitness to teach contacts, who are individuals centrally employed at the local authority who we communicate with regarding individual cases but who also carry out ongoing engagement with us in relation to the fitness to teach process –these individuals are often local authority Quality Improvement Officers and similar. In independent school cases, our point of contact would be a member of the school’s senior leadership team. Therefore, if an allegation had been raised against a registered teacher, the employer would be made aware of that. We would expect them to instigate their child protection policy and procedures. For local authority employers, this would include referral to their own social work department. Local authorities are obviously one of the three key agencies responsible for child protection in Scotland.

Should GTC Scotland decide to investigate a referral, if it is considered appropriate and it is not clear if the relevant police authority have been informed, we have and do contact the police authority to report the allegation. However, we do find that where there are allegations at this level of seriousness, the employer/police are often already aware of them. We also make referrals to Disclosure Scotland in the context of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme using the definitions of child harm and risk of harm that apply in this context.

We signpost referrers to employers and police as the appropriate first points of referral within the Fitness to Teach Threshold Policy noted above. In seeking to eradicate any potential doubt about our role and where we fit in the public protection landscape, we have also put a statement on the fitness to teach referral page of our website that any concerns about the safety or wellbeing of a child should be raised with the police and/or social work.

We are acutely aware that the system as a whole relies on employers (particularly local authorities) getting it right and having trust and confidence in them to do so: our view is that the public protection landscape in Scotland is currently predicated on this with child protection responsibilities in the school/education context sitting to a large extent with local authorities, and local authorities being one of the three key child protection agencies identified by the Scottish Government.

GTC Scotland has no role in monitoring or managing schools or employers of teachers and has no role in verifying that they do what is required of them. The regulation of education as a whole system is not a function that sits with GTC Scotland as a regulator of individual professionals. Accordingly, we do not hold the information requested in relation to your last question below. We know that the fact that the system relies on employers getting it right necessarily carries risk and we have been highlighting our concerns with this approach: what happens when an education service provider (generally a local authority in Scotland) or school breaches the trust that has been placed in them and does not do what is required of them, or where there is a systemic shortfall or wrongdoing? We have highlighted our concerns in this context as part of our participation in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and will continue to highlight them to the Scottish Government.

You asked the specific questions outlined below to which we have provided our response. You subsequently confirmed that in relation to bullet points 4/5/6, where you ask ’How many of the cases identified in 2019/2020/2021’, you meant of those cases identified in bullet points 1/2/3. In addition, you confirmed that in relation to the last bullet point, you meant in how many cases referred but not investigated in 2019/2020/2021 were fully investigated by the employer. We have taken safeguarding to mean action taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.

We have taken child protection to mean part of the safeguarding process, focusing on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. In the interests of transparency, we have taken a very wide interpretation of those definitions to encompass any alleged conduct that has harmed or potentially harmed children emotionally or physically in any way so this includes allegations of: name calling, failures to prevent pupil to pupil bullying (and similar), failures to provide appropriate pastoral care, shouting at pupils and causing them distress as well as breaching pupil confidentiality causing distress.

1. How many of the case referrals sent to GTCS which were not investigated in 2019 include child protection OR safeguarding concerns.
   16 referrals
2. How many of the case referrals sent to GTCS which were not investigated in 2020 include child protection OR safeguarding concerns.
   20 referrals
3. How many of the case referrals sent to GTCS which were not investigated in 2021 include child protection OR safeguarding concerns.
   11 referrals
4. How many of the cases identified in 2019 that related to safeguarding or child protection did GTCS send on to the police or relevant social work department, as per GIRFEC protocols?
   None
5. How many of the cases identified in 2020 that related to safeguarding or child protection did GTCS send on to the police or relevant social work department, as per GIRFEC protocols?
   In one of the referrals, a report was made by GTC Scotland to Police Scotland. This related to quite exceptional circumstances – it was an anonymous referral made about an applicant for registration (so there was no employer) and that related to alleged events that were of a potentially criminal nature and that had taken place in the community – we had no lines of inquiry to enable us to open an investigation in the circumstances.
6. How many of the cases identified in 2021 that related to safeguarding or child protection did GTCS send on to the police or relevant social work department, as per GIRFEC protocols?
   None
7. How many referrals, having not met threshold, how many have been fully investigated by the employer?
   Information not held, further explained above in terms of GTC Scotland’s role – we do not regulate employers. I therefore apply FOISA exemption S17 – Information not held to this point.

In conclusion, given our role as a professional regulator and place in the system, the serious cases we receive are usually well known to the police by the time that they reach us. We fully understand matters of public protection and the essential role of effective information sharing. Where we do not investigate a referral that we receive from a member of the public we will inform the employer (usually a local authority) and they will be expected to invoke their policies and procedures as they see fit, including any child protection procedures. Where we receive a member of the public referral where there is a significant child protection concern unknown to the Police, we would pass this information as a matter of course to the Police, but this is a very rare event given our role and place in the system.

We have reviewed the member of the public referrals made to us since 2019 that have resulted in no further action being taken. Of these, the vast majority of those have come from parents who have direct contact with the school and can readily raise their concerns with a teacher’s employer (almost always a local authority). We rarely receive referrals from children or young people or other members of the public and rarely receive referrals that relate to independent schools (these account for just 3% of our casework on average). Having reviewed the member of the public referrals since 2019 which were not investigated, we are content with the decision making but we continue to identify areas for improvement and, alongside the note above regarding our website, we will be reviewing the Threshold Policy to consider whether it might helpfully be revised in any way to ensure our role and place in the system of child and public protection is clear, the context of which we consider is not fully understood and recognised at the moment.