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This report sets out the expenditure and performance of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) over the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 For the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 An executive agency of the Department for Education Page intentionally left blank Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 For the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 An executive agency of the Department for Education Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 20 July 2022 HC 506 3© Crown copyright 2022 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at: www.gov.uk/official-documents Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at Department for Education, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD ISBN 978-1-5286-3541-7 E02764962 07/22 Printed on paper containing 40% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by HH Associates Ltd. on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery 4 Performance Report 7 Performance Overview 8 Performance Analysis 14 Accountability Report 31 Corporate governance report 32 Remuneration and staff report 44 Parliamentary accountability and audit report 59 The Certificate of the Comptroller & Auditor General to the House of Commons 60 Financial Statements 67 Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure 68 Statement of Financial Position 69 Statement of Cash Flows 70 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 71 Notes to the accounts 72 Annexes 79 Contents 5Performance Report 7 Performance Overview Overview This annual report and accounts (ARA) cover the operation of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA or the Agency), as an executive agency of the Department for Education (DfE or the Department), for the year ending 31 March 2022. Accounting Officer’s review The Agency has continued to support employers, schools and headteachers with safeguarding responsibilities. We also, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, act as the competent authority for teaching in England. The impact of the pandemic continued to affect operations in 2021-22. Despite these difficulties, we have responded well in delivering against our objectives throughout this period. Due to ‘in- person’ panels having been suspended in 2020, the Teacher Misconduct Unit (TMU) introduced virtual professional conduct panel meetings and hearings in September and November 2020 respectively. TMU continued to deliver hearings virtually and restarted ‘in-person’ hearings in 2021-22. TMU also instigated a Winter COVID-19 plan in 2021 to minimise the impact on hearings due to rising COVID-19 infections. The plan followed government guidance and where possible hearings were concluded virtually to minimise disruption to the planned schedule of hearings. In 2021-22 we undertook a full review of our hearings model and implemented a longer- term model from January 2022, based on a virtual by default model with the flexibility to allow for hearings to be held in-person, in line with Regulatory and Procedural requirements. This allows greater flexibility and is in line with regulatory requirements. The model was developed in consultation with stakeholders, and the project was given a ‘substantial’ opinion when it was reviewed by the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA). TMU has continued to focus on clearing the backlog of cases affected by COVID-19, including increasing hearing capacity and recruiting additional teacher panellists. The work of the Teacher Qualification Unit (TQU) was largely unaffected by the pandemic and continued to deliver all of its functions, including its telephone helpdesk, whilst operating remotely. From 1 April, the Agency began delivering the standalone Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) barred list status checks through TRA services. During 2021-22, a project reviewing the Agency’s digital services and technical architecture was undertaken and made recommendations on how we can ensure our technology and services are able to deliver current objectives and new policy reforms or initiatives. Improvements have been made during 2021-22, including delivering new technology to modernise TRA Enquiry Services and enhancements to the Teacher Misconduct System with further improvements due to be implemented in 2022-23. TRA repurposed its Senior Management Team widening attendance and remit to support the Agency in identifying and implementing cross cutting priorities, for example learning and development and workforce planning. Informal weekly all-staff meetings have continued, more formal all staff meetings continued monthly and were used as a forum to provide information and learning opportunities to staff. 8 | Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22100% 100% 99.9% 99.9% 98.7% 99.9% TQU will process all QTS recommendations from ITT providers, and make the outcomes available on the central record of qualified teachers within two working days of receipt 100% TQU helpdesk: 100% of helpdesk emails responded to within five working days of receipt TQU will process all induction results submitted by appropriate bodies, and make the outcomes available on the central record of qualified teachers within two working days of receipt 99.9% Initial Assessment: 100% of European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland applications initially assessed within the 20 working days service level agreement The central record of qualified teachers will be available to users for 98% of the reporting year 99.9% Award/Decline decision: 100% of applications completed within 90 working days for EEA, and 20 working days for OTT as specified in service level agreements 9 Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 |Statement of purpose and activities 1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-regulation-agency-corporate-plan 2 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/560/contents/made 3 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1685/contents/made 4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/886210/Teacher_ misconduct_Disciplinary_Procedures_for_the_teaching_profession.pdf#page=39 Our purpose is to support employers, schools and headteachers with safeguarding responsibilities, as set out in our 2021-24 Corporate Plan. 1 We also, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education (Secretary of State), act as the competent authority for teaching in England. Teaching in England is a regulated profession, and legislation sets out the training which a teacher has to undertake in order to teach in certain settings. We are responsible for awarding qualified teacher status (QTS), and early years teacher status (EYTS) to individuals who have completed their training in England. We are also responsible for the professional recognition of teachers who have qualified outside of England. We maintain the central record of qualified teachers which provides employers the opportunity to complete pre-employment checks to ensure that they are employing teachers who are appropriately qualified for their role. The Agency, on behalf of the Secretary of State, operates the regulatory system for teacher misconduct, as defined by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 and as amended by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2014. 2 3 Teachers are one of the most significant factors in a child’s education. The overwhelming majority are highly competent and effective, and never engage in any form of serious misconduct. For the small minority which do, TRA is responsible for: • investigating serious misconduct, where a teacher’s alleged behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with being a teacher, and could lead to them being prohibited from teaching, • prohibiting teachers from teaching who have been found to have committed serious misconduct. Headteachers and governing bodies are responsible for managing teachers in relation to: • their competence and conduct, and taking action to address underperformance, • misconduct in their schools and relevant settings. Vision, mission and core principles DfE’s vision states “At our heart, we are the department for realising potential. We enable children and learners to thrive, by protecting the vulnerable and ensuring the delivery of excellent standards of education, training and care. This helps realise everyone’s potential – and that powers our economy, strengthens society, and increases fairness.” We support this by striving to achieve excellence in all that we do acting as the competent authority for teaching in England and providing a fair and consistent regulatory system for the teaching profession on behalf of the Secretary of State. We do this by: • regulating the teaching profession through fair, rigorous and timely teacher misconduct investigations and professional conduct panel hearings and meetings to enable schools to meet their safeguarding responsibilities. 4 • awarding QTS to teachers who successfully complete initial teacher training (ITT), and EYTS to individuals who complete early years ITT • assessing applications received from teachers trained outside of England for recognition of professional status fairly and efficiently These activities maintain the high-quality standards of the profession, allowing every child access to high-quality education, which are our overarching goals and objectives. 10 | Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22Structur