Initially we’ll only allow people from teacher supply agencies to use the new service to check the record of a teacher.
The current Employer Access service has around 1000 users from around 350 teacher supply agencies.
We’ll automatically give these users access to the new service.
Why we’re inviting users from teacher supply agencies first
We’ve chosen to start with users from teacher supply agencies because they:
- can check the Children’s Barred List as part of checking a teacher’s record
- do not need to add teachers to their organisation within the service
Checking the Children’s Barred List as part of checking a teacher’s record
The Children’s Barred List is maintained by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
People on the list are not allowed to work with children. This includes teaching roles and other jobs.
In both Employer Access and the new service, the teacher record shows if a teacher is on the Children’s Barred List.
Some types of users can check the Children’s Barred List separately. We will launch a separate service to allow this.
Teacher supply agencies are not allowed to check the list separately.
Not needing to add a teacher to an organisation
Some types of users can add teachers to their organisation in Employer Access. They can see:
- a list of all teachers who have been added to their organisation
- which school a teacher is currently working for, if the school has added them to their organisation
We need to do research to find out more about the user needs which this feature currently meets. We have not yet decided whether to offer a similar feature in the new service.
Teacher supply agencies do not need to add a teacher to their organisation. The school which employs the teacher can instead add the teacher to their organisation.
How we’ll invite people to use the service
We’ll send an email to all users of Employer Access who work for teacher supply agencies.
Further considerations
If we find that few people start using the new service, we’ll consider:
- sending further emails
- adding a banner to the Employer Access service with a link to the new service