Teacher complaints system needs overhaul - report

The way misconduct allegations against teachers in Scotland are investigated needs a major overhaul, an independent review has found.

A report examining the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) found some of the regulator's conduct probes take too long and are not up to scratch.

As well as speeding up its "fitness to teach" process, the GTCS should be given "more effective public protection powers", according to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which carried out the review.

The GTCS said it wanted its investigations to be as fair and efficient as possible and would work on an action plan after considering the PSA's recommendations.

As the independent regulator for teachers, the GTCS is responsible for ensuring the 80,000 people on its register should belong to the teaching profession.

The GTCS does not investigate every complaint it receives.

Instead they are assessed against its "threshold" policy of whether the allegations have a bearing on an individual's fitness to teach.

This means most complaints about teachers initially fall to their employers, typically local authorities.

The PSA report said this approach "may present some risks".

This is because "employer investigations may vary in quality, and [the] GTCS has no control over how well they are carried out".

It added that the regulator may be "unaware of cases handled by employers that result in outcomes which are insufficient to protect the public and are not referred to GTCS".

In two of the small number of teacher referrals it examined the PSA report found there was no evidence the GTCS had reviewed either the output of the employer investigations or the primary evidence those investigations had collected.

Instead, the case was closed once the local employers had concluded there was no evidence to support the allegation.

BBC Scotland News has previously reported on a growing backlog of misconduct cases - one of which has lasted nearly eight years - and concerns some misconduct allegations against teachers were not being properly investigated.

The PSA said the fitness to teach process took too long and discovered some instances of information being pursued in investigations which the GTCS already held.

The review also suggest the GTCS should be given "more effective public protection powers".

These included the power to suspend teachers whilst investigations were ongoing and the automatic removal of a teacher from the register on the basis of a serious conviction.

The report also criticised the rule which allows the GTCS to close a case, both at the start and later in the process, if it was more than five-years-old.

It said: "We do not think that an arbitrary time limit for bringing a referral is necessary, appropriate, or helpful."

The report added it can take a long time for the "truth of complex situations to come fully to light".

Education advisor Neil McLennan is one of four campaigners behind a petition being considered by MSPs, which is calling for an investigation into alleged mishandling of child safeguarding complaints by public bodies, including the GTCS.

"This review is damning," he said.

"The GTCS have failed to protect children, teachers and the public. They not been protecting anything than their own reputation.

"Senior figures who have ignored, undermined and attacked those who raised legitimate concerns must immediately resign."

He said the organisation must stop using member-paid funds for "protecting reputations" and added it must be "abolished immediately".

McLennan added: "All cases that have been mishandled by GTCS and reported by the BBC must now be independently investigated."

The GTCS, which has a duty to regulate teachers but not their employers, has previously called for a clarification of the way its work as a regulator interacts with wider systems in place for public protection.

It also said that there are more than 80,000 teachers on its register and only a fraction - around 200 - every year are the subject of fitness to teach referrals.

Of that number, an average of 25 people are removed from teaching every year.

Jennifer Macdonald, strategic director at the GTCS, said: "We wanted to be challenged and that is what the PSA has done in this report.

"We have already begun to address some of the issues raised, other recommendations require collaborative work with our partners at a national level.

"We know how important this work is as a public protection and as a safeguard for the reputation of the teaching profession."