24-25/87

I refer to your request for information dated 23 January 2025 (FOI 24-25/87) in which you asked, “how many open safeguarding cases you have” and “what the oldest one is” which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA).

By way of advice and assistance, you might be interested in a response on our Disclosure Log which provides the total number of cases held at end of year reporting cycles since 2020.

Please note that the term “safeguarding” is not used as a specific category in the initial referral procedure under our Fitness to Teach process. However, we can provide you with the total number of open cases which was 208 as data extracted on 23 January 2025. Of these, 193 related to conduct which investigates the way a teacher has allegedly behaved and 12 related to competence which investigates a teacher’s skills, knowledge and ability to teach. There were 3 review requests for individuals seeking registration with GTC Scotland.

Finally, you asked “what the oldest one is” which I can confirm was 8 years and 2 months as of 24 January 2025.

You may also be interested in a Fitness to Teach insight report which we have published on our work investigating concerns raised with us about teachers between 2018 and 2023.

You may contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.ukif you are dissatisfied with this response, to request GTC Scotland conduct a review of it. You should describe the original request and explain your grounds of review. You have 40 working days from receipt of this response to submit a review request. When the review process has been completed, if you are still dissatisfied, you may use the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal to do so.