SISL: What's the future for the General Teaching Council?

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What's the future for the General Teaching Council?
Keith Bartley

Click here for a print version of this article.

The Secretary of State's announcement during the debate on the Queen's Speech on 2 June that he intended to bring forward legislation to abolish the GTCE came like a bolt out of the blue to the organisation. In fact, we were only notified shortly before midday that he was going to make this announcement during the debate in the afternoon.

Did we know it was coming? Certainly not – in fact only the previous Friday we were asked to do some further, detailed, work on a short 'think piece' we had prepared to brief Ministers on teacher quality.

Did we believe that our current operating model was perfect? Certainly not. The Council was already seeking changes in our founding legislation to modernise our governance structures, and make our regulatory work more effective for the public and indeed fairer for teachers.

We have been grappling for ten years with the challenges of a statutory remit that, in the words of Gail Mortimer, our Chair of Council, expects us to be 'both judge and cheerleader' for teachers.

We are required to regulate the profession; to register teachers; to offer independent advice in the public interest to government on matters relating to standards of teaching and learning; to raise said standards, and to raise the standing of the teaching profession. Quite a challenge for a single organisation with no government funding!

I am aware that the coalition government is sceptical about what Mr Gove has described as 'the intermediate state', those bodies that exist between government and the front line services. There is a strong drive from the coalition government towards greater autonomy for schools, and less bureaucracy and interference in schools by outside bodies. I have never wanted to lead a bureaucracy in search of a purpose. It is the range of functions and the way that they are interlinked, which have made the GTCE such a fascinating organisation.

I support the case for a 'root and branch' review of the systems, processes, levers and accountabilities that impact locally and nationally on teacher quality. The government is not convinced that they are working effectively and the government is right.

There is a lot of expert knowledge out there in the system. There are plenty of players with a deep knowledge of how schools operate and much to be gained from gathering that evidence systematically. That hasn't happened yet. Policy announcements have run well ahead of concrete proposals for reform.

So where are we now? We are a public corporation that is accountable to Parliament – and wholly independent of Ministerial direction – with a duty to work in the public interest until such a time as Parliament repeals or alters our founding legislation. Everyone, including the Council itself, is bound by the duties contained in that legislation until such a time as Royal Assent is given to an Act that alters them. We are told that this is unlikely to be before July 2011.

So until then, we believe it is our duty – in the public interest - to inform what is already becoming a wide-ranging debate about the functions, duties and powers that we were given in 1998. Not because we believe that they should continue to be discharged through our current operating model, but because we believe that the reasons that those functions were brought together should be re-examined.

What is the purpose and value of a universal register of teachers?
Who should determine whether a teacher is fit to practise?
What impact does a Code of Conduct have on the standing of a profession?
What role could and should a professional body play in developing collective professional knowledge?
Is it possible to reconcile advocacy for the profession with a disciplinary function?
Can you work to safeguard minimum standards of conduct and practice whilst supporting and showcasing best practice?
What further functions might a different professional body discharge?
Are there lessons to be learned from other professions and from other countries?

The worth and the value of the functions should be debated. The extent to which any of them are still needed should be set against the tests of serving the interests of children and young people, and raising the standards and standing of the profession.

To this end, the General Teaching Council for England has approved a paper that sets out these functions and examines how and why they are discharged. That paper can be found here on the NET website and I offer it as a stimulus to inform the debates that lie ahead.

Keith Bartley is Chief Executive of the GTCE and a NET leading thinker.

Phone (44) (0)207 702 0707

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