Teachers' regulator will judge misconduct claims

Teachers will face incompetence and professional misconduct hearings in public for the first time in the New Year.

Disciplinary panels appointed by the new General Teaching Council (GTC) will have the power to remove teachers from the register of those allowed to work in schools.

The hearings will be along the lines of those carried out by the General Medical Council to regulate members of the medical profession.

The panels, made up of serving teachers and lay representatives, will hear a variety of cases, ranging from allegations of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to incompetence.

The panels are required to consider every case where a teacher has been dismissed or resigned in circumstances when they would have been sacked. They must decide whether the teacher has demonstrated serious professional incompetence or unacceptable professional conduct.

The hearings will normally be held in public but teachers will be able to make an application for them to be held in private under human rights legislation.

Judy Moorhouse, a teacher member of the GTC and executive member of the National Union of Teachers, said it was the first time that teachers would have their own self-regulatory body to hear such allegations.

"Self-regulation is a major milestone for the standing of the teaching profession in England, echoing a system of professional trust that has been enjoyed by doctors, lawyers and other professionals for many years," she added.

"I am confident that when it is necessary for a teacher's conduct or competence to be considered by a hearing committee that we have a fair and just process that has been set up in consultation with the profession, including the teacher unions."

The first hearings are due to start on 9 January. No details of the allegations will be released until then. A spokeswoman for the GTC said that this was to ensure a fair hearing rather than set off a "name and shame" culture before the panel had heard the case.