Following a challenge by NAHT, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), which regulates teachers in England, has announced a change to its publication policy. In all cases where misconduct was found but no prohibition order was imposed, the misconduct finding will be now removed from the TRA website two years after the decision was first published.

The announcement confirms: “The details of these no prohibition order cases will no longer be accessible to employers when completing their safer recruitment checks as laid out in Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.”

Previously, in cases where there was a finding of misconduct but no prohibition order was imposed, the published decision stayed on the TRA website indefinitely. This led to an illogical situation where teachers who had only received a finding of serious misconduct by the TRA, but not had a prohibition order imposed had their decision published indefinitely with no mechanism for the decision to be removed. However, teachers who had a prohibition order could apply for their prohibition order to be lifted following the review period set out in their original decision. Once a prohibition order is lifted the original decision is removed from the TRA website.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “This is a welcome decision that comes after pressure was put on the TRA as part of a legal challenge in the case of an NAHT member. It has always been a strange irony that those accused of more serious misconduct who have the allegations against them proven and are prohibited from teaching are able to have the findings in their cases removed more quickly than those in cases where no prohibition is found necessary.

“There is no need for cases of less serious misconduct to be public for longer than two years – it can only cause reputational damage to the teacher concerned and negatively affect their employability for longer than is proportionate or reasonable.”