The consultation

published:30 Sep 2009

As we didn’t want to over-direct the revision, we asked the Office for Public Management (OPM), an independent body, to talk to teachers, heads, parents, children, governors and employers – the major groups with an interest in teaching – about the expectations they had of teachers and the role of teaching in today’s society.

They found that each group preferred the positive approach. They also found – and this is striking – that the group with the highest expectations of teachers was teachers themselves. Surprising, but healthy, and justifying the high reputation that teachers have in society.

OPM also had a major role in making a first draft of the Code and leading public consultation on it. We notified every school and teacher about the consultation, which was open over a three-month period from December 2008 to February 2009, as well as a wide range of key organisations. We received a substantial number of comments, which are summarised on the code pages of our website.

These comments led to significant changes to the draft. In particular, the Code became much smaller and more approachable as a result. Of course, what we could not do was change the code so that it fell in line with the views of every commentator.

We should also make it clear that, although we are very grateful for OPM’s support, the new code is the responsibility of the Council. The code was approved by the GTC’s full Council in July. Members made two small but important changes to the text in a thorough debate, and approved the code by a large majority.