Our Consultations

Welcome to GTC Scotland's consultation page.

This consultation page will be used to invite comments on what we are doing. On this page you can find out about and participate in our current consultations and read about the results of past consultations, together with our response to any comments received as part of our consultations.

We are committed to working with teachers, members of the public, including parents, children and young people, and all stakeholders with an interest in Scottish education and the work of GTC Scotland in maintaining and improving professional standards. Through consultations we invite your views when we are planning new areas of work or proposing to change the way we do things. We always welcome suggestions for improving the way we do things and we will tell you below about how you can send us feedback.

We undertook a number of consultation exercises as part of our planning for the granting of independent status to GTC Scotland on 2 April 2012. We thank all respondents for taking the time to help inform, and improve, the detail of our proposals and the documentation that we proposed. We will be consulting on other areas in due course and look forward to continuing to receive your comments.

We value comments from everyone. If you need any of the consultation documentation in an alternative format, please contact us.

Current Consultations

There are currently no consultations open.

Closed Consultations

Scheme of Professional Update

On 17 March 2011, the Scottish Parliament approved the Public Services Reform (General Teaching Council for Scotland) Order 2011 which sets out the Government's plans for the granting of independent status to us from April 2012. As part of this legislation (Section 31), the Government placed us under a duty to introduce a scheme of 're-accreditation' for teachers.

This consultation provided an opportunity for the education community to respond to the position we have adopted in our proposals for a scheme of Professional Update.

This consultation ran from 1 February 2012 to 12 March 2012.

You can view the consultation responses and position paper below:

View our draft advice notes which have been prepared as part of our initial thinking about Professional Update and how it could operate:

Framework on Teacher Competence

The Framework on Teacher Competence (FTC) replaces the Code of Practice on Teacher Competence from 2 April 2012. It sets out the procedures to be used by employers when addressing teacher under-performance.

The consultation ran from 17 January 2012 to 14 February 2011.

View a summary of the responses:

Following analysis of responses to this consultation, we have published the following final version:

Code of Professionalism and Conduct

The Code of Professionalism and Conduct (CoPAC) is intended to assist registered teachers and members of the public to understand the standard of behaviour expected of a registered teacher. Version 1 of CoPAC was introduced in August 2008.

In the light of the legislative changes to apply to us from 2 April 2012, CoPAC required to be revised to embrace new legislative terminology and a new Fitness to Teach framework. We also took the opportunity to revisit the content of the Code, remove reference to the current disciplinary process, and make the revised Code less legalistic and technical in character.

The consultation ran from 1 September 2011 to 17 October 2011.

View a summary of the responses:

Student Teacher Code

The Student Teacher Code (STC) is intended to be a supportive document for those undertaking or proposing to undertake a programme of teacher education. Accordingly the STC reflects the stage at which students find themselves in their career and also the context in which they are involved with pupils.

The original draft was produced by a small working group which comprised staff from some Scottish Universities and a GTC Scotland Officer.

The consultation ran from 1 September 2011 to 17 October 2011.

View a summary of the responses:

Fitness to Teach and Appeals Rules

We launched a consultation on new Fitness to Teach and Appeals Rules (the Rules) which set out how we will investigate and determine the fitness to teach of individuals who are applying for registration or who are already registered where it is alleged that they have fallen short of the standards of conduct or professional competence that GTC Scotland expects.

The consultation ran from 1 September 2011 to 17 October 2011.

View a summary of the responses:

Following analysis of responses to this consultation, we have published the following final version:

Code of Conduct and Membership Scheme and election and appointment processes

We launched a consultation on our proposals relating to how registered teachers are elected and individuals appointed to a future independent Council, or to serve on its committees and panels. This ran from 29 September 2010 to 11 January 2011.

We also launched a short consultation on our proposed Code of Conduct and Membership Scheme which is to be applied to seek to ensure that public and stakeholder confidence is maintained in the effectiveness, impartiality and integrity of those who serve on the Council as well as its committees and panels. This ran from 31 January 2011 to 20 February 2011.

Following analysis of responses to these consultation exercises, and taking into account the impact of the final version of the draft Public Services Reform (General Teaching Council for Scotland) Order 2011, we published revised, final versions of each of the documents on which we consulted (as noted below).

The reasons for the changes made to the documents in view of the consultation responses received are set out in the section entitled "Summary and GTC Scotland Conclusions" in our response available below.

Overview of respondents

Submissions were received from 13 respondents in terms of the consultation on our election and appointments processes; 10 responding on behalf of an organisation and 3 responding as individuals.

Submissions were received from 13 respondents in terms of the consultation on the proposed Code of Conduct and Membership Scheme; 12 responding on behalf of an organisation and 1 responding as an individual.

We thank all respondents for taking the time to help inform, and improve, the documentation that we proposed.

View a summary of the responses:

View a summary of the responses:

Registration and Standards Rules

We launched a consultation on new Registration and Standards Rules (accompanied by a Statement of Registration Principles for those qualified outside Scotland) which were proposed to update our current registration and standards rule framework to align with the Public Services Reform (General Teaching Council Scotland) Order 2011 and current law. In proposing the new rules, we also took the opportunity to simplify and streamline the framework to try to make it more accessible and easier to understand. Our consultation ran from 1 October 2011 to 3 January 2011.

Following analysis of responses to the consultation, and taking into account the impact of the final version of the draft Public Services Reform (General Teaching Council for Scotland) Order 2011, we have published a revised, final version of the rules framework which can be downloaded below:

The rationale for the changes that have been made in view of the consultation responses received is set out in the section entitled "Summary and GTC Scotland Conclusions" which is available below.

Overview of Respondents

Submissions were received from 9 respondents; 7 responding on behalf of an organisation and 2 responding as individuals.

We thank all respondents for taking the time to help inform, and improve, our proposed Registration and Standards Rules.

View a summary of the responses:

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