Extend TRA jurisdiction to teaching assistants
IICSA · The Residential Schools Investigation Report · Issued 1 March 2022 · Addressed to: Department for Education
Government responseNo response yet
DeliveryNo statement from Department for Education found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, E
The Department for Education should amend the Teachers' Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 to bring all teaching assistants, learning support staff and cover supervisors within the misconduct jurisdiction of the Teaching Regulation Agency. The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should amend Keeping Children Safe in Education and Keeping Learners Safe to: provide more detailed guidance as to the quality, nature and degree of supervision required for supervised volunteers working with children in schools; and make clear that Disclosure and Barring Service checks are free of charge for supervised volunteers, and should be obtained wherever practicable. The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should amend the regulations to provide that inclusion on the children's barred list automatically disqualifies the individual from being a governor or proprietor of any school. The Home Office should amend the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 so that proprietors and members of the proprietorial body and governors should be checked against the children's barred list.
IICSA, The Residential Schools Investigation Report · 1 Mar 2022 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Inquiry asked the Department for Education to extend misconduct jurisdiction and strengthen school safeguarding rules. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, summarising a UK Government response of June 2022 on a web page archived in July 2022, reported that anyone undertaking teaching work can already be referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) regardless of role (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Jul 2022). It recorded that the government incorporated free Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) volunteer checks into guidance, agreed in principle to consider supervision guidance, and would consider barring checks for governors alongside the Home Office (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Jul 2022). It also noted that the Welsh Government accepted the recommendation in principle in June 2022 and would review guidance and regulations regarding governors (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Jul 2022).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 2 Oct 2026.
Government response
●No formal government response recorded
The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Department for Education has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
●Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 25 Jul 2022
On 30 June 2022, the UK government stated that anyone undertaking teaching work can be referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) and this could include teaching assistants and learning support staff. The TRA does not consider a person's specific job role or position. The UK government stated that it will continue to monitor and review how the teacher misconduct regime operates. The UK government stated that it agrees in principle with the recommendation to provide more detailed guidance on supervised volunteers and will consider how and when to update Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). It also stated that it accepts the recommendation in respect of DBS checks, and has reflected this in KCSIE 2022. The UK government stated that the Department for Education will consider whether proprietors or governors should be checked against the children's barred list and, if so, will work with the Home Office and DBS to implement this. On 30 June 2022, the Welsh Government stated that it accepts this recommendation in principle and will consider it and make the necessary changes to the Keeping Learners Safe guidance. It also stated that it considers that the Independent School Standards (Wales) Regulations 2003 already fulfils the recommendation in respect of the children's barred list, as it already applies to proprietors and staff at independent schools. However, it will consider whether the relevant provision can be amended to apply to governors.
From: Recommendations - Residential schools investigation report
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