Updating the GOV.UK start page
We think the GOV.UK start page could be improved by:
- moving the section about making a complaint to the school before starting a referral to the top of the page
- mentioning that only cases that could result in a teacher being stopped from teaching for life will be investigated
- including examples of what might be considered serious teacher misconduct
Currently, we don’t say that only cases of serious misconduct will be investigated and give examples of serious misconduct until well into the service.
We hope that providing this information up front might help reduce ineligible referrals.
Changing language around ‘accounts’
Where we want to know if a user has started or completed a referral before, we currently ask ‘Do you have an account?’. This is the first page of the service.
If they select ‘Yes’, they’re prompted to enter their email address. We then email them a code which they can use to access the service.
If they select ‘No’, they answer more questions before having to enter their email address if they choose to continue making a referral.
We think this language could be confusing for users who may not associate their email address with having an ‘account’.
Instead, we suggest asking ‘Have you used this service before?’.
Asking users whether they’ve made a complaint
We’ve added a question asking whether the user has complained to the school before starting a referral.
If they select ‘Yes’, they continue with their journey.
If they select ‘Yes, and I’m waiting for an outcome’, they’re directed to a page saying they should wait for an outcome before making a referral.
If they select ‘No’, they’re directed to a page saying they should make a complaint before making a referral.
In the latter two scenarios, we still give the user the option to continue make a referral.
We hope these changes will add some ‘friction’ to the service, making users stop to think if their allegation warrants a serious misconduct referral.
Asking users to specify the nature of the misconduct
We’ve added a page asking whether the alleged teacher behaviour falls within the types of misconduct regularly investigated by the TRA.
The list of misconduct types is not exhaustive. It uses examples from what’s already in the service and others from the Teacher misconduct: the prohibition of teachers policy document.
If they select one of the ‘misconduct’ checkboxes, they continue with their journey.
If they select ‘None of these’, they’re directed to a page asking them to consider whether they should make a referral. Again, they still have the option to continue at this point.
We’re suggesting having this page in place of the Check if you should make a complaint... page. We’re also recommending bringing it closer to the start of the journey as the user may stop using the service at this point.
Next steps
We’ve shared these changes with the business and are awaiting feedback.
If there are no further iterations needed, we’ll test the changes with users in January 2024.
We’ll also need to engage with GDS to try and get the GOV.UK start page updated with our changes.