Teaching watchdog raises child protection concerns with government
Scotland’s teaching watchdog says its ability to regulate the profession and protect the public and children from unfit teachers is being adversely affected by “a lack of information sharing from other agencies”.
In particular, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) cites Police Scotland, saying that even though a judge ruled last year that it should share “critical evidence”, the change in practice “has been slow to take effect”.
In October 2021, a Court of Session judge described Police Scotland’s refusal to share crucial information with the GTCS for key child protection cases as “inexplicable and indefensible”. Police Scotland says it has now ”implemented revised processes to share information appropriately”.
However, a GTCS report says the body has nevertheless raised the issue with the Scottish government.
Meanwhile, new figures show the extent to which the GTCS fitness-to-teach processes have been hit by the pandemic: the average length of time taken to close a case in 2021-22 was 249 days, compared to 113 days in 2020-21.
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The GTCS is responsible for investigating and making decisions about Scottish teachers’ fitness to teach.
In order to carry out its role, the GTCS relies on the public and other agencies sharing information and making referrals, including teachers’ employers - local authorities, independent schools and further education colleges - and the police.
The GTCS undertakes investigations and, if appropriate, removes teachers from the teaching register so that they are unable to work in Scottish schools.
However, a report that went before the GTCS council for approval this week reveals that the body has concerns about its ability to carry out its role protecting the public and children, through the fitness-to-teach process, because other agencies are failing to share information about teachers who should be investigated and, potentially, banned from the classroom.
The GTCS’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022 says that “a lack of information sharing from other agencies continues to adversely impact on GTC Scotland’s fitness-to-teach proceedings”.
It states: “GTC Scotland relies on employers and other partners to inform us of concerns about teachers. Police Scotland are one of these partners and for some time we had been encountering difficulties with their position that they are unable to share relevant information with us.”
The report says in October 2021 “the Court of Session confirmed our position that Police Scotland can and should share critical evidence”.
However, the report says: “Although the judgement received from the Court of Session for petitions lodged to compel the sharing of information ruled in GTC Scotland’s favour, the change in practice required by the other agencies has been slow to take effect and this is the subject of further discussion with the Scottish government.”
The report also says the GTCS has “taken proactive steps to remind employers of their [fitness-to-teach] responsibilities and to seek assurance that all [fitness-to-teach] referrals have been made appropriately”.
The report shows that 51 cases were referred by employers to the GTCS in 2021-22 (representing 22 per cent of all cases), compared to 66 in 2018-19.
Responding to the statements in the GTCS report, Police Scotland assistant chief constable Alan Speirs said: “Child protection is a priority and no child will be put at risk of harm when we receive a report of potential criminality.
“We follow well-established and coordinated child-protection procedures, working with our statutory partners to ensure children and young people who may be at risk are identified, protected and supported.
“Additionally, we share information with regulatory bodies for law enforcement purposes or where there is a clear legal authorisation.”
He added: “We have taken on board Lord Uist’s decision [in the Court of Session]. As a result, Police Scotland has implemented revised processes to share information appropriately along with improved communication with regulatory bodies, including the General Teaching Council for Scotland.”
The GTCS report also shows that, as the country emerges from the Covid pandemic, the organisation has been able to close more fitness-to-teach cases - 174 in 2021-22, compared to 144 in 2020-21. However, the report also highlights that there is a backlog and a “need to progress and conclude cases”, but that this need must be balanced “with the effect of the pandemic on registered teachers, including panel members and witnesses”.
The report states: “We have been acutely aware of the pressures that those registered teachers have been under within their teaching roles. This has inevitably prevented some cases from concluding earlier.”
According to the report, there was a 20 per cent increase in the number of cases concluded in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.
It adds: “The average length of closed cases was 249 days (2020-21: 113 days). We concluded 23 full hearings (conduct and competence) over the course of 101 days, which meant that on average hearings took 4.4 days.”
In 2021-22, the GTCS received fitness-to-teach referrals in respect of 0.3 per cent of the total number of registrants.
Responding to the information sharing concerns raised by GTCS, a Scottish government spokesperson said the government had been working with Police Scotland and regulatory bodies “to ensure relevant information can be passed on lawfully and also in a way that has the interests of children and other vulnerable people at its heart”.
The spokesperson added that “significant progress” had been made since the period covered by the report and that the government planned to have “further discussions with partner bodies including the GTCS, SSSC [(Scottish Social Services Council)], Education Scotland, Disclosure Scotland and the Care Inspectorate to explore what further action may be required”.
The government also said the revised National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland was published in September 2021 for all those who support children and families, whether they work in health, police, third sector, local authority or education settings.
A GTCS spokesperson told Tes Scotland the body had seen “some progress with Police Scotland” and it continued to have discussions with them “about our concerns in regards to information sharing”. The spokesperson added: “We are also aware of the big resource challenges that they themselves face.”
The GTCS has recently come in for criticism over its handling of child-protection cases. Earlier this month, campaigners launched a petition calling on the government to investigate the “mishandling” of child-safeguarding allegations by public bodies, including councils and the GTCS.
However, the GTCS says there is confusion about its role in child protection.
In a post on its website, it says that teachers’ employers have the processes in place to manage child protection concerns. It says they can take “immediate protective action that GTC Scotland cannot”, including removing “an individual from a context”.
The GTCS says its role is to “manage wider, future risk by ensuring that a teacher is removed from the teaching profession as a whole, where this is necessary”.
However, this latest report reveals its long-running concerns about the barriers making it harder to fulfil that role.
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