Suitability to teach

last updated:19 Dec 2011

The Education Act, which confirms the abolition of the GTC, became law in November 2011. Until the GTC’s final closure on 31 March 2012, it remains a legal requirement for all teachers in maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, pupil referral units and most academies to be registered with the GTC.

For more information regarding the abolition of the GTC please see the Future of the GTC section.

Declaring your suitability to teach
Since September 2008, people who apply for a place on an initial teacher training (ITT) course have been issued with a GTC suitability declaration form. This confirms your suitability to teach.

After completing the form, you should return it to your training provider. Your suitability should be confirmed before your course begins. This allows you to be provisionally registered with the GTC no later than 28 days after the start of your training programme and to receive the benefits of provisional registration.

The suitability form is based on these five yes/no questions:

• Have you ever been the subject of a bar, partial bar, warning or other action by the Secretary of State in relation to working with children or misconduct?
• Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence, including motoring offences, or do you have any criminal charges/proceedings pending against you? (This does not include fixed penalty traffic offences and parking fines).
• Have you ever been subject to any disciplinary sanction by any professional or regulatory body in this country or abroad, or are you currently the subject of investigation by such a body?
• Is there a current employment disciplinary finding against you and/or are you currently the subject of an employer’s disciplinary investigation?
• Is there any other information the Council should know about which may have a bearing upon your suitability to register?

If you can answer NO to all of these questions, you will be deemed suitable for provisional registration. If you answer YES to any question, your application will be further scrutinised, and you may be asked to provide details of the circumstances.

ITT providers are supplied with guidance notes allowing them to assess whether an applicant is suitable.

In a small number of serious cases, training providers may submit details to the GTC, asking us to consider whether an applicant is suitable for provisional registration. The GTC Suitability Assessment Panel carries out investigations where needed, determining whether suitability can be confirmed. We may seek further information from other bodies, such as the police, in making our assessment. There is an appeals process for failed applicants who wish to contest the decision.

Need help?
If you need help to complete the suitability form, require a form in a different format - such as Braille - or have any other questions, please contact the teacher enquiry service:

• phone: 0370 001 0308
• email: registration@gtce.org.uk