Employers have a legal obligation under section 134 of the Education Act 2002 and the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/1744 (W. 183), to ensure that every qualified teacher, who carries out specified work in a maintained school is registered with the General Teaching Council for Wales. This requirement applies to persons working on a full time, part-time or supply basis.

Those exempted from the requirement to register include:

• trainee teachers.
• teachers working towards QTS through the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP).
• overseas-trained teachers who can work for a maximum of 2 years in total.
• unqualified teachers (e.g. instructors), where the school has been unable to find a qualified teacher with the necessary skills and expertise.

The legal requirement in respect of the employment of registered teachers is upon the "employer" and not the individual teacher.

The term "employer" includes Local Education Authorities, the Governing Body of a school in the maintained sector or a supply teacher agency.

Employers and prospective employers need to ensure that teachers they are considering employing (including supply teachers and NQTs) are registered with the Council before they are employed. It is important that a check on a prospective employee's registration and QTS status is built in as a pre-employment check by employers.

A teacher may be deregistered at any time for a number of reasons, for example:-

• as a result of a restriction/barring by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families or one of the General Teaching Councils in the UK.
• for failure to satisfactorily complete a statutory Induction period (please note a Statutory Induction period applies to teachers in Wales who gained QTS in Wales after 1st April 2003).
• for the non-payment of the annual registration fee.

The Council sends lists of registered teachers to employers on an annual basis requesting them to check their records to ensure that all teachers in their employment are still registered. Employers are advised to be particularly vigilant in the case of supply teachers, as they pay their annual registration fees to the Council directly.

To check that a teacher is registered, employers and prospective employers have access to the Council’s Register of Qualified Teachers through this website by using their allocated usernames and passwords. If any employer has not been provided with access to the Register in this way they should contact the Qualifications and Registration Team directly.

The Council has published a ’Teacher Registration – Guidance for Employers’, which provides a more detailed explanation of this area including the requirement for an applicant for GTCW registration to receive an enhanced disclosure check by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). CRB disclosure checking is now an integral part of the application process for registration with GTCW.

Copies are available from the Registration Team or may be downloaded from this website from here (PDF download size 556k). The Registration Team will ensure that all pre-employment registration checks are made promptly to assist employers.

Employers are urged to keep the Council informed of any changes of details relating to registered teachers in their employment, for example, changes of address, surname or school.

Contacts

For any matters concerning registration, please contact the Qualifications and Registration Team using any of the following media:-

• Address - General Teaching Council for Wales, 4th Floor, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW
• Telephone - 029 20550350
• Facsimile - 029 20550360
• E-mail - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it