Scotland’s teaching watchdog - the General Teaching Council for Scotland - has been told to reduce the time it takes to determine the fate of teachers that go through its “fitness-to-teach” process as “a matter of priority”.

Fitness to teach is the approach by which the GTCS investigates a teachers’ conduct or competence, with the ultimate sanction being a ban from teaching.

However, a damning review of fitness to teach - in a report commissioned by the GTCS and carried out by the Professional Standards Authority - finds that it is the body’s policy to close cases at the first stage in its process if they are being, or have yet to be, investigated locally.

The report says this “may present some risks” and could “result in outcomes which are insufficient to protect the public”.

It also calls for the GTCS to have “more effective public protection powers”, including the power to suspend teachers whilst investigations are ongoing, and criticises the “arbitrary” five-year limit on cases.

This allows the GTCS to close a case after five years but the report stresses it can take time for “the truth of complex situations to come fully to light” in cases where there may have been “traumatic harm”.

The review finds the median time taken between referral and the final stage in the process, the full hearing decision, to be around four years (211.1 weeks, based on six cases). However, the process could take even longer to conclude, it found - in two cases it examined, “it took over five years from the receipt of referral to the [full hearing] decision”.

Concerns over fitness-to-teach process

The PSA review says that delays can be caused by “difficulties in securing necessary information from other bodies”. The GTCS has in the past hit out at Police Scotland, for example, for failing to share information in a timely fashion.

However, the PSA also says it saw “unexplained downtime” in the case files it reviewed due to “lack of staff capacity”.

There were also “some instances of information being pursued which GTCS already held”, it says.

The review calls for the introduction of a “case-management system”, saying this would “yield a range of efficiency benefits”, and the removal of one stage in the [fitness-to-teach] process: panel consideration.

It also says that the GTCS should build in scope for initial inquiries at the first stage of the process - known as “initial consideration” - instead of relying solely on the information provided as part of the referral.

The review says this would have the “twofold benefit” of increasing the proportion of appropriate referrals progressing to investigation and decreasing the number that progress “inappropriately”.

Between 2018 and 2023, the GTCS progressed to investigation 26 per cent of the referrals it received from members of the public, compared with 92 per cent of the referrals received from employers.

The review also recommends:

• The removal of the “arbitrary” five-year limit on cases. The rule allows the GTCS to progress a case if it is in the public interest to do so but the review advises a time limit is unnecessary and unhelpful. It says that it can take “a long time for the truth of complex situations to come fully to light” and adds: “In cases involving traumatic harm, it can take many years before the nature of that harm, and even the fact that harm has occurred, to be fully understood and recognised, and for people whose trust has been damaged to be able to engage with processes and organisations.”

‘Insufficient’ protection of public

• Reviewing the GTCS policy to close cases if the issues have not been investigated locally by the employer first. It says that “investigating concerns at the local level can often be the best first course of action”, but adds that “employer investigations may vary in quality” and “result in outcomes which are insufficient to protect the public”. The review says it found “a small number of cases” closed at “initial consideration” - the first stage in the process - that “we thought the evidence on file suggested should have progressed to investigation”.

• Better support for vulnerable people taking part in the fitness-to-teach processes. The review says: “Regulatory processes such as [fitness to teach] are stressful for all involved, and can expose and sometimes compound vulnerabilities.” However, it also says that when GTCS was informed about a mental health condition such as anxiety, in most cases examined it “did not see any evidence of GTCS considering or acting on this information”. It also says that in most cases the GTCS did not adhere “to its policy of providing updates to teachers”, causing “stress and anxiety”. The review states: “In two cases closed at [panel consideration], GTCS did not provide an update to the teachers involved in over a year.” However, the review does also say it saw the “GTCS carefully considering the wellbeing of vulnerable young people”.

• Increasing the maximum time frame before which a registrant can apply for readmission to five years; the current maximum term is two years.

• Increasing the number of channels through which members of the public can make referrals. The review says GTCS steers people towards its online form and away from email, phone calls and letters but this “could deter some people from raising their concerns - particularly those who may be unable to use online routes”.

• Pursuing changes to the law including the introduction of suspension as an option for panels and automatic removal on the basis of a serious criminal conviction. The review says suspension would allow the GTCS to prevent registrants from practising or restrict their ability to practise while a case is investigated. “Temporary restriction orders” have been used but it was “not clear how effective TROs are in protecting the public”, and the review was made “aware of teachers changing jobs while subject to a TRO”.

GTCS ‘wanted to be challenged’

Jennifer Macdonald, strategic director for the GTCS, said the body had committed to reviewing its fitness-to-teach rules during 2023 to 2028 because of its importance “as a public protection and as a safeguard for the reputation of the teaching profession”

She said the GTCS had commissioned the PSA review because it “wanted to be challenged, and that is what the PSA has done in this report”. The GTCS has already begun to address some of the issues raised but some require “collaborative work with our partners at a national level”, she added.

Ms Macdonald said: “We will consider the PSA’s recommendations in full and we will be presenting an action plan to our Professional Regulatory Assurance Committee. In the meantime, we ask all our partners and stakeholders to read the report in full and consider it in the context of the wider regulatory system in which we all operate.

“We thank the PSA for their advice and all participants for their time and feedback.”

There are over 80,000 teachers on the register and the GTCS receives fitness-to-teach referrals for about 200 teachers each year. It removes an average of 25 people a year.

The report can be read in full here.

For the latest in Scottish education delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for Tes’ The Week in Scotland newsletter