The number of teachers banned by the Teacher Regulation Agency fell by almost a third (31 per cent) in 2019-2020, according to the Teaching Regulation Agency annual report, published today.

Its figures show that the numbers of teachers issued with professional bans fell from 91 in 2018-19 to 63 between April 2019 and March this year.

The TRA report shows it also missed its timeframe goals for screening and processing teacher misconduct referrals last year.

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Last year, the TRA received 900 teacher misconduct referrals - a 9 per cent decrease from 2018-19 - and held 96 professional conduct panels.

As a result, 63 teachers were banned from the profession - a 31 per cent decrease from the 91 that were banned last year.

The report also reveals that the TRA missed its target of concluding or referring to further hearing 95 per cent of teacher misconduct cases within 20 weeks. Only 85 per cent of cases were processed within that timeframe. 

High staff turnover at the TRA and delays in getting information from third parties were highlighted as factors contributing to the agency’s failure to meet the target.

High staff turnover was also mentioned as a factor that prevented the agency reaching its 100 per cent target for assessing overseas-trained teacher applications - it only managed to process 82 per cent of European Economic Area and Switzerland applications within the planned 20-day timeframe.