As of 1st April 2018, the regulation of the teaching profession in England will be dealt with by Teaching Regulation Agency (the “TRA”). The TRA is an executive agency of the Department of Education (the “Department”). All other functions of the former regulator, the National College for Teaching and Leadership (the “NCTL”) have been transferred to the Department.
The TRA has published a Corporate Plan which details the organisations priorities and programmes of work fr...
As of 1st April 2018, the regulation of the teaching profession in England will be dealt with by Teaching Regulation Agency (the “TRA”). The TRA is an executive agency of the Department of Education (the “Department”). All other functions of the former regulator, the National College for Teaching and Leadership (the “NCTL”) have been transferred to the Department.
The TRA has published a Corporate Plan which details the organisations priorities and programmes of work from establishment (01 April 2018) to 31 March 2021. The Corporate Plan details the TRA’s vision statement as follows;
“We will strive to achieve excellence in all that we do, delivering a fair and consistent regulatory system for the teaching profession on behalf of the Secretary of State. We will assess applications for recognition of professional status fairly and efficiently. We will support the teaching profession by ensuring high standards of conduct are maintained, by fair, rigorous and timely teacher misconduct investigations, that where appropriate, prohibit teachers guilty of serious misconduct. We will work to maintain the high quality standards of the profession, allowing every child access to high quality education.”
The TRA’s functions are divided between two operational teams, which are the Teacher Qualification Unit and the Teacher Misconduct Unit.
The Corporate Plan details the objectives of the Teacher Qualification Unit for 2018/2019, as follows;
To act as the competent authority for teaching in England and ensure delivery of EU Directive 2005/36EC
Ensure delivery of service level agreements for assessments and decision making for applications from overseas trained teachers
Maintain the database of qualified teachers in England
Enable employers to undertake pre-employment checks on the online database
Utilise the online teacher self-service solution to deliver new certificates to teachers
Maintain accurate lists of prohibitions, decisions and restrictions relating to teachers and ensure that relevant data is collected from other regulatory authorities
The Teacher Misconduct Unit is responsible for the receipt of referrals, investigations, applying for interim prohibition orders and the preparation of cases for hearing before the Professional Conduct Panel.
The Corporate Plan details that it is expected that the scale of operation for the Teacher Qualification Unit and the Teacher Misconduct Unit for 2018/2019 will include the following;
Processing approx. 9,000 applications from overseas trained teachers for recognition as a qualified teacher in England;
Delivering up to 75,000 new online certificates to teachers through the teacher self-service portal;
Processing more than 380,000 pre-employment checks through the online employer service;
Issuing up to 35,000 teacher reference numbers;
Considering approx. 1,000 referrals of serious misconduct;
Formally investigating approx. 70% of referrals;
Administering approx. 150 Professional Conduct Panels;