Some Much-anticipated and significant changes to how education is delivered to children and young people were announced in the Scottish Parliament last month by education secretary John Swinney.

He made clear that, despite the need for change, some principles will remain the foundations of a successful Scottish education system. One such principle is that of a graduate teaching profession and the registration of all teachers against a set of professional standards, currently managed by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).

As Mr Swinney said: “One of the strengths of our current system is that we have national teacher professional standards underpinned by a national registration scheme, which ensure the high quality of our teachers.”

He also announced plans to create an Education Workforce Council for Scotland (EWCS), which will build on the work of the GTCS; it will include the responsibilities of the Community Learning and Development Standards Council and other parts of the education workforce.

Questions to answer

Of course, this idea is not unique - a new body was established in Wales by legislation in 2014. Under the Education (Wales) Act, the General Teaching Council for Wales was reconfigured and renamed, with the Education Workforce Council coming into being from 1 April 2015. The EWC in Wales is independent of government and, as well as regulating teaching, has responsibility for further education lecturers, early years practitioners, youth workers, work-based learning providers and learning support staff in both school and FE settings.

The organisation has proved to be a success, although it did take some time to get fully up and running with its new powers. The GTCS continues to have close links with the EWC in Wales and we share information, statistics and experiences to improve the services we offer registrants. Indeed, we argued for the creation of an organisation along the lines of the EWC in Scotland in our submission to the Education Governance Review consultation.

We made clear that bringing together the registration of all individuals who have a role in the education of children and young people was an important step in underlining to parents, the wider public and registrants the important role of regulation across the entire education sector.

The GTCS was the first organisation of its kind anywhere in the world and, for the past 52 years, it has played an innovative and internationally respected role in the regulation of the teaching profession. There will be a range of views as to the next steps for the GTCS in its transition to an EWC. Certainly, more detail is required on issues such as the degree of independence afforded this new body, the make-up of its council and the extent to which it will have a teacher majority in order to maintain the important principle of the self-regulation of the profession. The autumn consultation will be an opportunity to ask these questions and to ensure that, whatever form the EWC takes, it is the right one for education in Scotland.

There are still some who argue against the need for a regulatory body that acts in the public interest and ensures teacher professionalism by registering only those who have achieved the appropriate qualifications and background checks. The GTCS carries out this work in the public interest to ensure the quality of educational experience and the safety of young people in our schools. The intention to create an EWC in Scotland emphasises this point - for many years, a wide range of people have had a role in the education of children without coming under the wing of a regulatory body. Importantly, what a registration and regulatory body offers education professionals is a reinforcement of an individual’s professionalism, where there can be no question that they meet a set of established professional standards and are engaged in ongoing professional learning.

Reassuring the public

As with any policy change, some areas require clarification. These will become more transparent following the autumn consultation, but some questions are easier to answer: there needs be no doubt in anyone’s mind about the commitment of GTCS council members and staff to continue working effectively to deliver high-quality services to teachers and to reassure the public about standards in schools.

We are currently engaged with partners across the education sector to revise our professional standards and Code of Professionalism and Conduct. We are accrediting a range of exciting new routes into teaching in partnership with universities in Scotland that offer initial teacher education and we will be launching an improved online registration process in the autumn to complement these routes.

Our work in offering supportive online professional learning environments for teachers will continue apace, and we will continue to administer the Teacher Induction Scheme, which is an often unheralded success, as evidenced by our recent celebration event for probationer teachers who had completed the scheme and qualified as bona fide teachers.

This brings me to one final point - and indeed a rallying call to those involved in, and with an interest in, education in Scotland. It has been a challenging time for everyone in the sector. It’s now time for all of us to talk up teaching and to be more positive about the strenuous efforts made by teachers to deliver high-quality learning opportunities to our children and young people.

We should see this time of change as an opportunity to reflect on how we do things, and to embrace the changes ahead with a new determination to work together to make things better.

Ken Muir is chief executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland