Review ordered into handling of complaints against teachers

The body that regulates teachers in Scotland has called in external reviewers to look into the way it investigates misconduct allegations.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) has commissioned the review amid a growing backlog of cases, one of which has lasted nearly eight years.

Concerns have been raised by families, campaigners and teachers over the way child protection and safeguarding complaints in Scotland are handled.

The GTCS said the review was designed to improve the regulator’s processes and will deliver positive change.

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. 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 fall to their employers, typically local authorities. Critics have claimed that not all council investigations are up to scratch.

The GTCS has now asked the London-based Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care to review its fitness to teach process.

It comes as there has been an increase in the number of open GTCS cases, up from 166 in March 2020 to 203 in July this year.

As of July, the longest running case had been open for seven years and 10 months.

The regulator said the rise in outstanding cases had been caused by the fallout from the Covid pandemic and investigations becoming increasingly complicated.

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.

He said gaps in the GTCS’s fitness to teach process were among many concerns which had been raised by petitioners and whistleblowers.

“Changes to their processes meant that referrals regarding teacher conduct, including the most serious child protection and safeguarding matters, can and were deemed by the GTCS as ‘frivolous’ unless the referral came from the employer," he said.

"This places much trust in employers and belittles referrals that may have come from well-meaning members of the public, parents, and even children who have a right to access such processes."

The petitioners are calling for the creation of an independent national whistleblowing officer for education.

Mr McLennan added: "There is evidence that local authorities and employers can get it wrong in child protection and safeguarding cases.

"Many have raised concerns about the conflict of interests that can exist, as well as a lack of investigative expertise, capacity and independent scrutiny of these investigations."

Lindsay McNicholas’s 30-year teaching career was effectively ended in 2018 when she raised safeguarding concerns about the Highlands nursery where she worked - and then found herself out of a job.

“My whole life as I knew it was turned upside down," she said.

"Everything I had wanted to do, which was to be a teacher and be a good teacher, was gone."

The following year Lindsay took the case to an employment tribunal and won.

Teacher Lindsay McNicholas was investigated by the GTCS for nearly five years before her case was dropped

The judgement said a referral to the GTCS by Lindsay’s previous employer had been done in bad faith and was driven by the disclosures she made about the nursery.

She said: “When we got the decision from the employment tribunal it was an enormous relief.

"I felt justice had been done, the truth had come out and we very quickly provided the GTCS with the decision."

But the GTCS then tried to do its investigation without taking this judgement into account - a move which Lindsay had to fight off via a challenge at the Court of Session.

It was five years before the regulator eventually decided to drop the case.

"My career as a teacher was ended and we had to fight at every turn just to try and get a fair investigation," added Lindsay.

She wants reforms to the GTCS's fitness to teach process to make it fairer for everyone taking part.

"There’s considerable delays. Some cases are taking years to conclude, and while it's going on you can’t raise any concerns, genuine concerns, about the way the investigation is being handled," she added.

Child protection

Concerns have previously been raised that some misconduct allegations against teachers in Scotland are not being properly investigated.

In 2023/24, 105 of the referrals to the GTCS related to child protection and safeguarding.

Thirty-six of them did not result in full investigations after they were assessed as not requiring to be reported to the relevant authorities.

A GTCS spokeswoman said: "The purpose of reviewing the rules is to ensure they reflect current law and best regulatory practice, and to make the fitness to teach process work as efficiently as it can, while still meeting the public interest and ensuring fairness.

"The results of their review will help inform the changes we need to make to the Fitness to Teach process and the rules that govern it."

She added: "While we are confident that this review will deliver positive changes to our own processes, there are wider issues within the system that require action to address."

The regulator added they do not comment on individual investigations for legal reasons but said it had a target of closing 80% of cases within 15 months.