When testing our designs for employers, it became clear that many users wanted to better understand the end-to-end process of reporting a teacher for serious misconduct.
Some users said they had no idea what to expect once they’d submitted their report because it was the first time they’d done this.
They wanted to know:
- what the steps in an investigation were
- what the possible outcomes were
- when a formal meeting or hearing might take place
- who would be involved in the process
- who would be told what, and when
The problem with existing guidance
There’s already a range of guidance about teacher misconduct on GOV.UK which, if read in its entirety, would give users a decent understanding of what happens when allegations are made to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).
The problem with it is there’s an awful lot to navigate: 10 separate guidance documents, some of which run to almost 50 pages. Few users have the time or appetite to digest it all.
What was missing was an at-a-glance guide that would help people to easily understand what to expect. We decided a page using GOV.UK’s step-by-step template would fit the bill.
Creating the guide
Our research with employers gave us a good idea of which questions the guide needed to answer.
Using these as a starting point, we looked through TRA’s detailed guidance and produced a summary of the end-to-end process for reporting serious misconduct.
Checking the guide’s accuracy
We then checked the accuracy of our content with TRA case workers and policy workers. We made a number of small changes based on their feedback.
Pointing users to the guide
We expect the step-by-step guide to sit alongside the existing guidance on GOV.UK. However, we feel it’s important to proactively point to it too so that the people who need it know about it.
We decided to add a link to the guide from the summary screen users see once they’ve submitted a report.
We also propose that we link to the guide in TRA correspondence to people who make reports.
Testing the guide
We’re due to test our service designs for members of the public soon. We’ll test the step-by-step guide as part of this round of research.