Explanatory Memorandum to the Education Workforce Council (Main Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2015
This Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared by the Department of Education and Skills and is laid before the National Assembly for Wales in conjunction with the above subordinate legislation and in accordance with Standing Order 27.1.
Minister’s Declaration
In my view, this Explanatory Memorandum gives a fair and reasonable view of the expected impact of the Education Workforce Council (Main Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”).
Huw Lewis
Minister for Education and Skills
3 February 2015
1. Description
1.1 This statutory instrument will revoke the following Regulations:
· General Teaching Council for Wales (Functions) Regulations 2000 as amended (“the 2000 Regulations as amended”);
· the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”);
· the General Teaching Council for Wales (Disciplinary Functions) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”); and
· the Education (Supply of Information) (Wales) Regulations 2009 (“the 2009 Regulations”).
1.2 This is as a consequence of the Education (Wales) Act 2014 (“the Act”). The Act reconfigures the General Teaching Council for Wales (‘GTCW’); extends the current remit of the body; and amends the composition of the GTCW’s membership, in order to create the new Education Workforce Council (EWC).
1.3 The sets of Regulations listed under paragraph 1.1 above have been consolidated, updated and added to, in order to create the Education Workforce Council (Main Functions) Regulations 2015. This is a composite set of Regulations that sets out the detail for the main functions of the EWC.
2. Matters of special interest of Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee
2.1. None.
3. Legislative background
3.1 The Act introduces a new, more robust registration system that will bring greater coherence and recognise the contribution of the whole education workforce to the education of all learners in Wales.
3.2 Workforce registration will help facilitate the improvement in the standards of teaching and the quality of learning in Wales, by ensuring that the wider education workforce are regulated and supported. It will enable us to recognise the valuable role all those supporting teaching and learning play and will ensure that they are all working to the highest standard.
3.3 The Act provides a sound basis for future development of greater coherence across the workforce in Wales. It will help install greater confidence in the wider education workforce and support them in gaining the necessary training and development to improve the service they provide to learners.
3.4 The Act introduces a new requirement on FE teachers, FE learning support workers and school learning support workers, while ensuring that the system that already exists for teachers continues without interruption.
3.5 The EWC will become operative from April 2015, upon commencement of the relevant provisions within the Act; and the coming into force of these Regulations. This will allow for a phased implementation of the registration of the wider education workforce, with FE teachers being the first addition to the existing register of school teachers; followed by FE and school learning support workers’ registration to be phased in from April 2016. Upon commencement, the EWC will have a statutory duty to establish and maintain a register of both school and FE teachers; and all employers will be required to ensure that they only employ teachers who are registered with the EWC.
3.6 The Act recognises the increasing synergy between the school and FE sectors; and reinforces the need for a similar level of consistent, independent regulation across the whole education workforce. The Welsh Government believes that parents and the wider public are entitled to be reassured that all of those employed within the teaching professions, whether schools or institutions of further education, are subject to appropriate independent regulation and aspire to the highest professional standards.
3.7 The Welsh Government believes that suitability and disciplinary responsibilities are core functions of a professional regulatory body and that it is the role of the professional regulatory body, rather than government, to uphold the profession’s standards of competence and conduct.
3.8 The EWC will continue to investigate cases of misconduct and serious professional incompetence reported to it, as was the case with the GTCW; enabling the EWC to continue to determine whether practitioners should stay on the register and continue to work in either a school or FE institution in Wales.
3.9 It is vital that we have an effective regime in place to tackle serious professional misconduct and that practitioners whose behaviour is unacceptable are no longer employed to teach or support learning.
3.10 These Regulations are made under powers conferred on Welsh Ministers by sections 10(2)(b), 13, 14, 15, 25, 26(6), 28, 33, 35(4), 36,(2), 37(2) and 47(1) of, and paragraph 12 of Schedule 2 to, the Education (Wales) Act 2014.
4. Purpose & intended effect of the legislation
4.1 These Regulations prescribe:
· the form and manner in which the register is kept;
· the requirement to register;
· specified work that may be carried out in schools by qualified teachers and persons who satisfy specified requirements;
· the provisions for committees of the Council to exercise the disciplinary powers conferred on the Council;
· the maintenance of records;
· the information to be supplied by employers, agents and contractors, and;
· the information to be supplied by the Council.
4.2 The Education Workforce Council is a body established under the Act; with the aim of contributing to improving the standards of teaching and the quality of learning and improving the standards of professional conduct amongst practitioners.
4.3 In February 2011, the then Minister for Education and Skills set out his agenda to raise standards of education in Wales. Through the Programme for Government, the Welsh Government committed to review the GTCW. This is part of a series of measures that will help to improve educational standards and attainment for the people of Wales; and ensure that wider education workforce practitioners work together more effectively.
Registration
4.4 Section 9 of the Act sets out the function of establishing and maintaining a register of practitioners; Schedule 2 to the Act sets out the categories of registration and the persons who fall within it. Accordingly, these Regulations make provision as to the form and manner in which the register is to be kept, and other matters relating to registration; mirroring many of the existing provisions, but expanding them to incorporate the wider workforce - in particular FE teachers.
4.5 A key feature of many professions is a requirement to register with a professional body that sets and maintains professional standards. The benefits to all education practitioners are that they will be recognised as a single and coherent education workforce. In addition, registrants will be seen as:
· part of a credible and valued workforce;
· having professional status, with specific standards for entry and continued membership of that profession; and
· suitable to be a member of the profession – maintaining public trust and confidence.
4.6 A qualified teacher working in a maintained school has, in the context of the Act, the same meaning as a qualified teacher under section 132 of the Education Act 2002. There will be no changes to current arrangements for this category of registrants.
Specified work and requirement to be registered with the EWC
4.7 Part 2 of the Regulations re-make many of the provisions of the 2010 Regulations with some minor changes. They provide for qualified teachers carrying out specified work in schools to be registered with the Council. Schedule 3 to these Regulations provide for those persons who were mentioned in Schedule 2 to the 2010 Regulations to carry out specified work in schools, in the same circumstances as previously.
4.8 Under Section 15 of the Act, the Welsh Ministers have the power to exempt some persons, who otherwise would be required to register under the category of FE teacher, from that requirement. This means that persons providing or engaged in types of activity set out in these regulations (which would ordinarily fall within the definition of FE teacher set out in the Act) will be exempt from the requirement to register in relation to that activity. Part 4 provides that unless a person meets any of the conditions prescribed in these Regulations they may not provide further education at a further education institute, unless they are registered with the EWC. It is proposed that a requirement to register will not be a requirement if the conditions set out in regulation 19 (Part 4) are met.
4.9 It’s important to note