The GTC registration fee for 2010-11

last updated:05 Mar 2010

General Teaching Council for England registration fee decision

The Secretary of State for Children and Schools and Families has approved a GTCE annual registration fee of £36.50, following four years without any fee increase.

Rising from £33 to £36.50 from 1 April 2010, the GTCE fee remains the lowest of any UK teaching body and among the lowest of any professional regulator in the world.

The GTCE Council currently has 62 serving members and the majority of these, around two-thirds, are registered teachers. At its next meeting on March 24 2010, the Council will consider the implications of this decision in continuing to meet the full requirements of its remit, in line with its 2009-12 Corporate Plan.

Recognising the current financial pressures on teachers and the public purse, the GTCE has made – and will continue to make – substantial cost savings.

Keith Bartley, Chief Executive of the GTCE said:

'This year the professional registration fee will rise to £36.50, in line with inflation over the last four years.

'Although this is a matter for agreement between employers and unions, I anticipate that permanent teachers in the state sector, and some others, will continue to receive a £33 payment from their employer towards the fee.

'Over 95% of our income comes from the registration fee, but we use small amounts of grant from elsewhere to help keep the fee as low as possible. Efficiency savings have kept the fee static for the last four years but, in common with many organisations, cost pressures have increased.  Those pressures have now reached the point where we need to secure sufficient income so that we can continue our work on behalf of the public in upholding professional standards for teaching.'

The fee will support the programme of work, agreed by Council Members in January 2010, to promote higher standards of teaching in the public interest through teacher registration, professional regulation, advising Government on proposed policy changes and supporting teaching practice. The fee will ensure that the GTCE can address a substantial rise in the number of disciplinary cases received for investigation.

Overseas trained teachers and instructors working in the maintained sector, who are now required to be provisionally registered with the GTCE, will also be eligible to pay the fee.  These groups will be notified well in advance of the introduction of the fee later this year.

Provisionally registered trainee teachers will continue to pay no fee until fully qualified and registered and the GTCE will receive a grant from the DCSF to fund provisional registration.

The GTCE welcomes the commitment made by the Secretary of State to ensure that set-up costs for the Government’s proposed licence to practise will not be met from teachers’ registration fees.