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| AdminHistory | The Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 set out that the Council "shall establish and maintain a register of teachers [which] shall contain the name of every person who is eligible for registration and applies to be registered …" Any qualified teacher, other than certain barred teachers, could apply for registration, and from 1 June 2001 registration was compulsory for teachers in maintained schools, non-maintained special schools and pupil referral units (PRUs). The Council, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, was empowered to charge a fee for registration.
The Council also became the awarding body for qualified teacher status and for the granting of confirmation of having successfully passed induction. Teachers whose 'appropriate body' had deemed that they had failed induction had the right of appeal to the Council.
The General Teaching Council for England (Registration of Teachers) Regulations 2000 and General Teaching Council for England (Additional Functions) Order 2000 both came into force on 1 September 2000. The former set out much of the detail about how the Register was to be maintained and the latter required that the GTCE maintain records on certain categories of unregistered teacher.
The concept of 'specified work' was introduced in the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003, which came into force on 1 August 2003. Qualified teachers who carried out 'specified work' in maintained schools, non-maintained special schools and PRUs were required to be registered with the GTCE.
Teachers in academies were initially not required to be registered. However, following concerns expressed by the GTCE, it was announced from 1 September 2006 academy funding agreements were to require registration.
On 1 April 2008 the GTCE introduced online employer access to the Register to enable employer checks on the status and qualificationd of individual teachers to be made with greater efficiency.
The Education Act 2002 made provision for the introduction of suitability assessments and provisional registration. By undertaking the former, the Council were entitled to reject an application for registration should they not be satisfied of the applicant's suitability to be a teacher; this power came into force on 1 August 2007 under the General Teaching Council for England (Registration of Teachers) (Amendment) Regulations 2007.
Provisional registration was effected under the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations and the General Teaching Council for England (Eligibility for Provisional Registration) Regulations 2008. The requirement was introduced on 1 September 2008 for trainee teachers and 1 September 2009 for instructors and overseas-trained teachers. The latter two categories were required to pay an annual registration fee as from 1 September 2010, charged at the same rate as for registered teachers.
With the passing of the Education Act 2011, responsibility for the awarding of qualified teacher status was returned to the Secretary of State, with the work planned to transfer to the new Teaching Agency from 1 April 2012. The Register was no longer to be held, but a list of qualified teachers was to be maintained, enabling the continuance of employer checks in an efficient manner. |