Code consultation

published:07 Jul 2009

The General Teaching Council for England has now approved a new Code of Conduct and Practice for registered teachers. The new Code has been developed through an extensive process of public and professional consultation. It came into effect on 1 October 2009.

Following research and in-depth consultation with teachers, parents, pupils and others the GTC produced a draft of the new Code and invited responses. This public consultation was managed by the Office for Public Management (OPM) on behalf of the GTC.

The new Code sets out expected standards of conduct and norms of practice for 540,000 registered school teachers in England. Its expectations for standards of conduct also apply to trainee teachers who are provisionally registered with the Council. It takes account of the much closer work with other professionals, including health professionals and social workers that teachers now undertake. The draft also reflects the growing body of evidence now available about what constitutes good teaching practice.

The following documents can be downloaded from this page:

• Report on the findings from the public and professional consultation and engagement on a revised draft of the Code, written by OPM who carried out the consultation on behalf of the GTC
• Overview of the development of the revised Code, which summarises the pre-drafting engagement process, describes the process of consultation and engagement on the draft Code, and summarises its findings and the revisions to the draft that were made as a result
• Report on the findings from the GTC’s consultation with organisations on a draft Code
• Equalities impact assessment of the revision of the Code.