Teaching Council 3

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Regulating the Profession
The Teaching Council Act, 2001, 7.-(2) (b), requires the Council to establish, publish, review and maintain codes of professional conduct for teachers which shall include standards of teaching, knowledge, skill and competence.

Following a process of consultation and communication, the Council has developed Codes of Professional Conduct for Teachers and they have been circulated.

Garda Vetting of Teachers

Background
In June 2006, Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Hanafin, T.D. announced expanded arrangements for the vetting of people with unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults. This move was based on recommendations made by the inter-departmental Committee on Garda Vetting. Vetting procedures have been in place for some time in relation to special needs assistants and bus escorts. The DES, in consultation with the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU), has decided that, as a first step in the expansion of the vetting services of the GCVU, the vetting of new teachers and ancillary staff employed in schools should be given priority.

Vetting of Teachers
From the beginning of the 2006/2007 academic year, vetting became a condition of employment for new teachers and other appointees who have unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults. "New teachers" are defined as those who are newly qualified or are re-entering the service after a period of three years or more. Vetting arrangements will be expanded on a phased basis over the coming years to include all teachers currently in the system.

What is Vetting?
Vetting is a search for criminal convictions made against Garda records. The results will show either that there are no convictions or give a statement of prosecutions/ convictions which were successful or not, and prosecutions pending. Please note that the Garda Central Vetting Unit has advised that the vetting process is currently taking between 6 and 8 weeks to return a result (as of May 2008).


The Role of the Teaching Council
As part of the process of registering teachers for the first time, the Teaching Council has agreed to be the authorised body to seek vetting for new teachers. In practice, this means that the Council:

  1. Receives and checks the completed Garda Vetting Application Forms from final year student teachers in colleges and universities and from other new teachers.
  2. Forwards the application forms to the GCVU to have the vetting carried out in respect of each applicant.
  3. Receives Garda Vetting results from the GCVU once the vetting has been completed.
  4. Prepares a Vetting Letter for each applicant giving the result of the vetting.

This obviates the need for schools to directly approach the GCVU to request the vetting of such new teachers.

The Teaching Council, in the context of registration, will have to decide on the relevance of a conviction to the teacher's suitability for registration. The Council has established a Vetting Group to assess disclosures of convictions returned by the GCVU. The Committee is currently drafting guiding principles to assist in its consideration of convictions.


The Role of School Authorities
It is the responsibility of the relevant school authorities (board of management) to ensure that any proposed new appointee who may have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults is vetted. However, this should only be sought in respect of a person to whom it proposes making a job offer.

Boards are advised in Circular 0063/2010 that the fact that a person has a conviction does not automatically render him or her unsuitable for work with or access to children or vulnerable adults. A person's suitability should be looked at as a whole in the light of all the information available including the relevance of the nature of the offence in the context of child protection.

Further Details
Any queries in relation to Garda Vetting can be made by calling the Teaching Council at (01) 6517900 and choose option 4 from the phone menu.

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Last updated: October 2011