History of the GTC

last updated:20 Dec 2011

The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) started work on 1 September 2000 as the independent professional body for teaching in England.

Pressure for a general teaching council dates back to the 19th century. In Scotland, a general teaching council was established in 1965, but it took until 1997 to secure a Government commitment to introduce GTCs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Following consultation with a wide variety of educational stakeholders - including the teacher unions - the GTC was established by the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998.

The Act gave effect to a long-held aspiration to give teaching the same status as other self-regulating professions, such as nursing. It set the GTC two aims:

• to contribute to improving standards of teaching and the quality of learning,
• to maintain and improve standards of professional conduct among teachers, in the interests of the public.

Since 2002 the GTC has been responsible for raising the standards of the teaching profession in England.

The GTC's 64 council members are answerable to registered teachers and ultimately to the public through Parliament. The composition of the council was intended to cover a wide range of stakeholders in teaching, while ensuring that the majority of council members would be teachers with current or recent teaching experience.

The GTC's first chief executive (2000-06) was Carol Adams. Lord Puttnam of Queensgate, CBE was the first chair (2000-02).

The GTC's early achievements included:

• establishing the register of teachers
• publishing advice to the Government on its proposals for teachers' professional development
• producing a Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers.

Funding
The main source of funding for the GTC is its annual registration fee, payable by registered teachers since 2002-03. The current registration fee is £36.50.

Abolition
On 2 June 2010, the Secretary of State for Education announced his intention to abolish the General Teaching Council for England. The Education Act, which confirmed the GTC’s abolition on 31 March 2012, became law in November 2011.