Council Elections FAQ

To be eligible to stand for election you must:

• be nominated in accordance with the procedure set out below.
• within a period of two years ending on the candidate qualifying date of 22 September 2023, have been employed in the election category in which you are seeking election.
• on September 2023:
  • have paid the GTC Scotland registration fee for the current year
  • have the election category (as set out in the Notice of Election) in which you are seeking to be elected, entered against your name in the Register.

A candidate will be disqualified from the election if at any time before the election they no longer meet any of the above criteria.

Reasons for ineligibility 

In addition you may be ineligible to be elected if any of the following apply to you:

• Unspent criminal convictions or outstanding criminal charges;
• A finding of impaired fitness to practise by any regulatory body;
• Disqualification from a profession or as a company director;
• Bankruptcy;
• Removal from a position as a charity trustee, as a director of a public body or similar;
• Barred or disqualified from regulated work with children or protected adults by virtue of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (or any similar equivalent legislation).

If any of these apply to you, you must tell us in your Nomination Form.

Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme

If elected, before serving as a Council member you will be required to be a member of Scotland’s Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme in respect of both the children’s and protected adults workforces.  GTC Scotland initiate the relevant PVG application process and will meet the associated fee as applicable to Council membership.

Please refer to the Guidance Notes for full details of the nomination process and how to complete and send us your Nomination Form, election statement and photograph.

Two seats within each of the primary/nursery and secondary school election categories are reserved to those employed as headteachers (ie who within two years ending on the candidate qualifying date of 22 September 2023 have been employed on a permanent (not acting) part-time or full-time basis in that capacity) within either category.

The headteacher reserved seats will be allocated on the following basis:

• If the number of headteacher candidates standing in an election category does not exceed the number of reserved headteacher seats vacant in that category, the Returning Officer will declare those candidates elected to the reserved headteacher seats.
• If the number of headteacher candidates standing in the election category exceeds the number of reserved headteacher seats vacant in that category, the reserved headteacher seats will be filled by those headteacher candidates credited with the greatest number of votes in the election. Any headteacher candidate not so elected to a reserved headteacher seat will be entitled, following the Election Scheme, to be elected to any other vacant seat in their election category.
• If there is no headteacher candidate to fill a reserved headteacher seat within an election category, the seat will be treated as an interim vacancy to be filled following the Election Scheme and Election Policy.

As set out in the 2023/2024 Notification of Election:

• In the primary/nursery school election category:
  • Five Council seats are to be filled for a 4-year term
    • one of these seats is reserved for a headteacher candidate, and
    • the other seats can be filled by headteacher or teacher candidates.
• In the secondary school election category:
  • Five Council seats are to be filled for a 4-year term
    • one of these seats is reserved for a headteacher.
  • One Council seat is to be filled for a 2-year term
    • this seat can be filled by headteacher or teacher candidates
• In the further education category:
  • One Council seat is to be filled for a 4-year term. This seat can be filled by a teacher/lecturer candidate.
• In the teachers/lecturers in universities in Scotland election category:
  • One Council seat is to be filled for a 4-year term.
    • This seat can be filled by a teacher/lecturer candidate.

The above seats in the primary/nursery and secondary school election categories will be allocated as follows:

1. the reserved headteacher seats with a 4-year term will be filled by the headteacher candidate in the relevant category credited with the greatest number of votes in the election;
2. the remaining seats with a 4-year term will be filled by the candidates credited with the highest number of votes or remaining headteacher candidates credited with the next highest number of votes in the relevant category in descending order in the election;
3. the interim vacancy seat with a 2-year term will be filled by the teacher candidate or remaining headteacher candidate in the relevant category credited with the next highest number of votes in the election after all the seats with a 4-year term have been filled.

If there is no headteacher candidate to fill the reserved headteacher seat or if there are no headteacher or teacher candidates to fill any other vacant seat, the seat will be treated as an interim vacancy to be filled in accordance with the GTC Scotland Election Scheme and Election Policy.

Please refer to the Guidance Notes for full details of who can nominate you and the nomination process.

Candidates can withdraw from the election at any time up to 12 noon on 27 November 2023.

In order to be entitled to vote, by the qualifying date of 29 November 2023 you must:

• have paid the GTC Scotland registration fee required for the current year in order to maintain your registration, and
• be on the GTC Scotland Register of Teachers.

You may only vote in the one election category entered against your name on the GTC Scotland register on the electorate qualifying date of 29 November 2023.

In the primary/nursery and secondary school election categories, a registered teacher (whether a teacher or headteacher) may vote for a teacher or headteacher.

Please make sure we hold an up-to-date email address for you and that you are in the correct election category by 29 November 2023 (5 pm).

An email with a unique PIN and link to the secure and independent voting website will be sent to each registrant to enable them to cast their vote online. These will enable you to vote in the election category entered against your name in the Register on the above closing date.

Voting in the 2023/2024 Council Election will take place solely online. Registrants will not receive printed ballot paper and candidate information.

You can update your details online by logging into your MyGTCS account.

You will need your registration number to log in.

If you have forgotten your password, please use the MyGTCS password reset facility.

There are four election categories:

• Primary school teachers
• Secondary school teachers
• Further education teachers/lecturers
• Teachers/lecturers delivering Initial Teacher Education

You will be affiliated to one of the categories listed above based on your registration category (which it is assumed reflects your employment).

If:

• the nature of your registration means that you could fall into more than one election category, and;
• the category that you have been affiliated with does not match your current employment;

please make a request to change your election category following the steps under “How can I change my election category?” below by 29 November 2023.

For the purpose of a Council election, within each of the primary/nursery and secondary school categories the teacher and headteacher categories are integrated (with seats reserved to those employed as headteachers).

If, within a period of two years ending on the candidate qualifying date of 22 September 2023, you have been employed (on a permanent basis, either part-time or full-time) as a school headteacher in the primary or secondary school election category, you will be automatically considered to be a headteacher candidate for the purposes of filling any vacant reserved headteacher seat in the election.

You can request a change to your election category by logging into your MyGTCS account.

Click the Change button next to Voting Category. A pop-up box will appear.

Select the new Voting Category you wish to be moved to from the drop-down list.

Type a reason for change, for example, ‘I am employed as a Secondary School teacher’.

Click submit.

You have until 29 November 2023 to ensure that you are in the correct election category for voting in the election.

Please also ensure that your contact details are up to date. We need your email address to send you ballot instructions and your unique PIN to vote in the election.

Election category and standing for election

If you are standing for election, you must make sure you are in the election category in which you wish to stand for election when you submit your Nomination Form (by 5pm on 22 September 2023).

The election will take place by the first past the post system.

To ensure that the election process is fair, open and transparent, we have engaged Civica as the Independent Scrutineer to run the voting stage (including the counting of the votes) of the 2023/2024 GTC Scotland Council election.

Further information is available on the Civica election website.

21 August 2023
Election advertised; nomination papers available online or on request

22 September 2023
Closing date for receipt of nomination papers; by this date all candidates must be in the correct election category

29 November 2023
Closing date for electors; by this date all electors must be in the appropriate election category

17 January 2024
Emails with ballot information and instructions sent to registrants to enable them to vote online

9 February 2024
Closing date for receipt of online votes

14 February 2024 (or as soon as possible after this date)
Publication of results

13 and 14 March 2024
Induction meetings of the new Council

2 April 2024
New Council members take up office