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This report sets out the expenditure and performance of the Teaching Regulation Agency over the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

This report was laid before Parliament on 29 July 2024.

Published 29 July 2024.

Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2024 An executive agency of the Department for Education Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2024 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 29 July 2024 HC 15 3 © Crown copyright 2024 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 978-1-5286-4971-1 E03137262 Printed on paper containing 40% recycled fibre content minimum. Printed in the UK by HH Associates Ltd. on behalf of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office. 4 Contents Performance Report 7 Chief Executive’s foreword 8 Performance Overview 9 Performance Analysis 16 Financial review of the year 27 Performance in other matters 29 Key risks and issues 30 Forward look 31 Going concern 31 Accountability Report 33 Overview 34 Corporate governance report 35 Remuneration and staff report 45 Parliamentary accountability and audit report 60 Financial Statements 69 Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure 70 Statement of Financial Position 71 Statement of Cash Flows 72 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 73 Notes to the accounts 74 Annexes 83 Annex A – Qualified Teacher Status awards 84 Annex B – Glossary of terms 88 Annex C – Sustainability and TCFD disclosures 89 5Performance Report 7 Chief Executive’s foreword Marc Cavey Chief Executive – Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA or the Agency) I am pleased to present TRA’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) relating to the year ended 31 March 2024. The first part of the document is the annual report which details TRA’s organisational structure and performance, as well as the key risks that the Agency has identified and is managing. It also sets out how the Agency has performed during this reporting year, including how it has significantly ramped up delivery in respect of its responsibilities for the regulation of both teacher misconduct and teacher qualifications. The accounts form the second part and provide a detailed insight into the costs associated with TRA’s operations and delivery. Marc Cavey Chief Executive 4 July 2024 8 | T eaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24Performance Overview Overview A key area of focus during 2023-24 has been increasing TRA’s capacity to respond to growing demand across its services. The interventions made by the Agency’s leadership team have resulted in a year of record performance. The Agency’s Teacher Misconduct Unit (TMU) has taken extensive steps to increase capacity to ensure the timely conclusion of cases, including building additional capacity and onboarding 83 new professional conduct panellists. Digital and process improvements, influenced by user research, have streamlined TMU’s activities, including the scheduling of misconduct hearings. TMU also successfully concluded a procurement exercise of seven new legal contracts to support investigation and case conclusion at hearing stage. As a direct result of this work and other improvements, the Agency has reduced the number of older cases that have been progressed following a case to answer decision by 49% and 244 misconduct hearings took place in 2023-24. This is the highest number of hearings that the TRA has delivered during a reporting year in its history, an 18% increase from 2022-23 and a 64% increase from 2021-22. During 2023-24, TRA has seen a significant increase in the number of misconduct referrals it receives. To address this, TMU has worked closely with key stakeholders to review its processes, including changing how referrals are communicated to teachers and conducting user research to make improvements to the service. Despite this challenge, the Agency has met its ‘Initial Assessment’ key performance indicator (KPI), ensuring that over 99% of referrals were initially assessed within three working days of receipt. Delivery within the Agency’s Teacher Qualification Unit (TQU) has also increased in 2023-24. Since February 2023, teachers who qualified in an expanded number of countries have been able to apply for qualified teacher status (QTS) through a new digital service. New, more robust requirements have also been introduced to ensure that only highly qualified teachers with substantial experience are awarded QTS. To respond to significantly increased demand driven by teachers who have qualified in the newly eligible countries, and in order to implement a more rigorous assessment process, the Agency has expanded its capacity and capability, enabling it to make a record number of QTS awards to highly qualified teachers during 2023-24, with 5,122 awards issued since February 2023. Additionally, TRA has continued to modernise its customer-facing and back-end systems, working with the Department for Education (DfE or the Department) to introduce new, improved portals for employers and teachers, and to streamline the handling of enquiries about teachers’ qualifications records. The following report will provide greater detail on these and other aspects of TRA’s work during the 2023-24 reporting year. 9 Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 |Statement of purpose and activities The TRA’s core purpose is to support employers, schools and headteachers to discharge their safeguarding responsibilities, as set out in the Agency’s 2021-24 Corporate Plan. 1 Teaching in England is a regulated profession, and legislation sets out the training that a teacher has to undertake in order to teach in certain settings. The TRA is responsible for confirming QTS and early years teacher status (EYTS) to individuals who have completed their training in England. The Agency is also responsible for the professional recognition of teachers who have qualified outside of England. TRA maintains the central record of qualified teachers, which provides employers with the opportunity to complete pre-employment checks to ensure they are employing teachers who are not prohibited from teaching and who are appropriately qualified for their role. The Agency, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, also takes action on receipt of allegations of serious teacher misconduct, as defined by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 2 and as amended by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2014. 3 Teachers are one of the most significant factors in a child’s education and the overwhelming majority never engage in any form of serious misconduct. In respect of the small minority that 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 • pr ohibiting 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 • less serious misconduct in their schools and relevant settings 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 10 | T eaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24Vision, 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.” The TRA supports the realisation of this vision by striving to achieve excellence in all that it does and by providing a fair and consistent regulatory system for the teaching profession on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education. TRA does this by: • regulating the teaching profession through fair and rigorous teacher misconduct investigations and administering professional conduct panel hearings and meetings. The Agency upholds the public interest by publishing the outcomes of these hearings and meetings where findings of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or relevant conviction have been made • supporting schools with their safeguarding responsibilities – as outlined in the Keeping children safe in education guidance 4 • maintaining the central recor d of qualified teachers • maintaining the list of prohibited teachers • confirming the award of QTS to teachers who successfully complete initial teacher training (ITT), and EYTS to individuals who complete early years ITT • assessing applications received fr om 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 the Agency’s overarching goals and objectives. 4 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-educ