Nearly 100 teachers 'a risk to children'

Published on Saturday 24 October 2009 19:56

NEARLY 100 Scottish teachers are banned from ever working with children under safety rules introduced after the Soham murders, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

The teachers have been added to a Scottish Government black list because it is believed they pose a danger to youngsters, even though some have not been convicted of any crime.

They are banned from working in schools or in any other workplace where they might come into contact with under-16s.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland, the watchdog for the profession, said it had referred 98 teachers to the government's disqualified from working with children list (DWCL), 29 of them within the past 11 months.

A GTC spokesman declined to give details on the individuals referred or the reasons for their referrals but said: "In general terms, we would consider any cases of a child protection nature, any crimes of violence and incidents of a sexual nature as particularly serious. A pattern of repeated offending may be also of particular concern to the council."

Teachers are now understood to make up the single biggest professional group on the DWCL. As of last week, the black list, which was set up in 2005, contained 378 names. It is not known how many of the individuals on the list have been convicted in a criminal court – but not all have been, officials confirmed.

A spokesman for the teaching union EIS stressed that the 98 banned teachers would account for just 0.2 per cent of all those who registered to work in Scotland.

He said: "It is clear that any individual who breaches their position of trust with children should be dealt with appropriately by the legal system."

He continued: "Where an individual is subject to a clear legal conviction, there can be no issue with them being placed on the disqualified list.

"However, where the system could be open to challenge is where individuals have been placed on the list for issues short of a legal conviction. The robustness and fairness of this relatively new system must be ensured, to provide an appropriate balance between protecting children and ensuring that the current high professional standards within the Scottish teacher workforce are maintained."