The Teacher Misconduct Unit (TMU) of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) is responsible for regulating the teaching profession through fair, rigorous and timely teacher misconduct investigations and professional conduct panel hearings and meetings to enable schools to meet their safeguarding responsibilities.
The TMU are responsible for managing and/or recording:
- misconduct investigations, leading to the prohibition of teachers
- high court appeals against prohibition orders
- applications for a prohibition order to be set aside
- newly qualified teacher induction appeals
Detailed information about the disciplinary process can be found in the teacher misconduct guidance.
The TMU use the Teacher Misconduct System (TMS) to manage cases. Some of the people involved in the misconduct process use the Teacher Misconduct System or its public Panellist Portal, and others don’t have system access but interact with the TRA by phone or email.
Users outside the TMU
Referrers
No system access
Referrers can be:
- employers (who are legally required to make a referral under certain circumstances)
- members of the public
- the police
- the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- other regulators and interested organisations
Employers and members of the public make referrals by sending one of these forms to the TRA by email or post. Referrals from the police, DBS etc. are received by email, and may contain large sets of supporting documents.
Referrers are set up as contact entities in the TMS. The case worker will notify the referrer by email or post of the outcome of the investigation.
Referred teachers
No system access
Anyone carrying out teaching work in England can be referred to the TRA for:
- unacceptable professional conduct
- conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute
- conviction, at any time, of a relevant offence
See the Teachers’ Standards for more information.
A teacher who has been referred for a misconduct investigation is created as a contact entity in the TMS and notified by the case worker. Case workers communicate with referred teachers by email / phone. Case workers send teachers hearing documents in advance by email.
Schools / employers
No system access
In cases where a referral didn’t come from the teacher’s employer, the TMU will identify the correct employer, create them as an organisation entity in the TMS, and notify them of the case. Case workers communicate with employers by email / phone.
Panellists
Panellist portal users
If the TMU decides that there is a case to answer, then the case proceeds to a professional conduct panel hearing. The panel is made up of at least 3 members, with at least one teacher and at least one non-teacher. The TMU has a pool of panellists available to sit on panels, which changes every few years.
Panellists are contacts in the TMS, and they also use the panellist portal (an internet accessible part of the TMS CRM) to manage their availability for hearings and access the documents related to cases to which they are assigned.
Teachers’ legal representatives
No system access
Some teachers may use legal representation in their misconduct case. If informed of this, the TMU will send correspondence to the legal representative rather than the teacher.
Presenting officers
No system access
The TMU typically use legal firms to investigate cases, prepare hearing documents and present the case against a teacher at a hearing on their behalf.
The Presenting Officer firm is an Organisation entity in the TMS. The TMU communicate with the presenting officer by email.
Legal advisers
No system access
A legal adviser supports the panel to understand questions of law at each hearing. The TRA has 3 contracts with legal adviser firms to provide this service.
TMU users
Case workers
TMS Users
Each case is assigned to a specific case worker within TMU. Most of TMU’s case workers are responsible for around 100 active cases. Case workers main responsibilities are to investigate cases of serious teacher misconduct, provide case management direction to legal firms, respond to teacher queries/SARS/FOIs and oversee the administration of professional conduct panels.
Administrative support
TMS Users
TMU admin support team monitors the teacher misconduct inbox and uploads referrals to the TMS. They also gather the investigation documents needed when a misconduct case is due to a criminal conviction and provide general admin support.
Scheduling team
TMS Users
Schedule panellists on all professional conduct panels, book hotel accommodation for panellists, manage appraisals of panellists.
Stakeholder engagement team
TMS Users
Responsible for engagement with panellists and the Panellist Representative Group (PRG), responsible for TMU comms, lead for stakeholder engagement (e.g. police, teacher unions)
Contracts, performance, systems and quality team
TMS and panellist portal administrators
Responsible for TMU contracts with six legal firms, monitoring and reporting on TMU performance, responsible for TMU systems (e.g. TMS, Panellist Portal), responsible for management TMU quality KPIs
Appraisers
DfE currently has 7 panellist appraisers, who assess panellists to ensure that they meet the relevant standards.