Garda Vetting of Teachers
Last updated: Thu, Jul 27th, 2017 12:26:35 pm
The Teaching Council is the authorised body for administering vetting for teachers in Ireland and is required to assess the vetting disclosure for suitability for registration. The school is required to receive and assess the vetting disclosure for employment purposes. The Vetting process employed by the Teaching Council is outlined on its website at Teaching Council Application for Vetting. This Vetting Procedure is entirely online and reports are made available through DIGITARY - the Teaching Council's online solution that teachers will use to receive their vetting disclosure. Provision is made for registered teachers to make their Vetting Reports available through DIGITARY to prospective employers. Access to a vetting disclosure must be made available to the Secretary to the Board of Management when the offer of employment is being made. School managements have been notified by way of Department of Education and Skills CL 0031/2016 that teacher vetting disclosures will only be made available on-line. The Board of Management may withdraw an offer of employment if access to a satisfactory vetting disclosure is not made available. The Board of Management cannot enter into a Contract of Employment without first receiving a satisfactory vetting disclosure.
A full account of the current Vetting procedures for schools may be accessed on the ACCS website at School Management/ Garda Vetting of Teachers
Current Statutory Requirements on the recruitment of Teachers.
The school must not commence the employment of an employee to undertake ‘relevant work or activities’ before the school authority receives a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau in respect of that person. (See CL 31/16)
The registered teacher must apply for vetting via the Teaching Council.
The Teaching Council will issue a vetting disclosure to the teacher through a secure online portal called Digitary. The teacher can access the vetting result 24/7 via this secure web portal and can share the vetting result online with the school principal.
The school principal should have a confidential valid email address for the purpose of receiving all online eVetting disclosures. The principal provides the teacher with this address.
The principal will receive an email from the teacher containing a secure link to the login section of Digitary. The principal follows the instructions to view the disclosure.
The teacher has the option to add a secure PIN number to the shared document. The teacher must provide the details of this PIN separately to the principal.
Examples of teacher employment:
1. Employing a new teacher:
If the school hasn’t received a copy of the Teaching Council vetting letter for that teacher prior to 29 April 2016, then the school must obtain a disclosure from the Bureau in respect of the teacher.
2. Renewing a fixed term contract for an existing teacher:
There is no immediate obligation under the Vetting Act to obtain a vetting disclosure from the Bureau in respect of existing employees whose employment is continuous with the same school authority.
3. Teachers returning from career break or secondment:
There is no immediate obligation under the Vetting Act to obtain a vetting disclosure from the Bureau in respect of existing employees, including those returning from career break or secondment. However, where a teacher has been on extended leave (e.g. 2 years or more), it may be prudent for the school to require a vetting disclosure from the Bureau.
4. Redeployed teachers:
Where a teacher is being employed by a new employer, even where this arises from redeployment the new employer in question must obtain a vetting disclosure from the Bureau in respect of the person prior to commencing his or her employment. The DES has advised all teachers and their new schools of this requirement.
5. Teachers in newly amalgamated schools:
In the case of school amalgamations, from the commencement of the new school year all teachers who transfer/move to the new school must be vetted by the new school employer prior to commencing their employment in that new amalgamated school. Therefore, the newly amalgamated school must obtain a vetting disclosure from the Bureau for all staff prior to the commencement of the new school year.
6. Employing a substitute teacher:
Save for the exception directly below, a school must not commence the employment of a substitute teacher without first obtaining a disclosure from the Bureau in respect of that teacher.
The exception is, where the teacher is (a) on the school’s list of substitute teachers prior to 29 April 2016 and (b) the school has received a copy of the Teaching Council vetting letter for that teacher prior to 29 April 2016, there is no obligation under the Vetting Act to obtain a disclosure from the Bureau in respect of that teacher prior to commencing the employment. Both conditions (a) and (b) must be met for this exemption.
7. Adding teachers to the school’s substitute list after 29 April 2016:
The school must obtain a vetting disclosure from the Bureau via the Teaching Council before it can consider employing the teacher. The vetting disclosure should be obtained at the point on which the teacher is being added to the school’s substitute teaching list or as soon as possible thereafter. In this way the school will ensure that the vetting disclosure has been obtained in sufficient time to allow the teacher to commence work in the school at short notice.
8. Student teachers:
The current position is, student teachers must be vetted through ACCS unless (a) they have been vetted by the Bureau (post 29 April 2016) through their teacher training college and (b) they furnish to the school the disclosure from the Bureau, in advance of their placement, to enable the school to determine if the disclosure amounts to satisfactory vetting in terms of the school’s vetting policy.
Statutory Declaration and Form of Undertaking
The requirement for a Statutory Declaration and Form of Undertaking to be completed and provided to the school authority prior to making a teaching appointment of any duration still exists.
The updated version of the Statutory Declaration contained in the Appendix to CL 31/2016 must be used where a declaration is being newly completed from 29 April 2016 onwards.
Declarations already completed using the old version of the declaration (as contained in CL 63/2010) can still be provided to a school authority subject to meeting the requirement for the declaration having being made in the current or previous calendar year.
The new version of the Form of Undertaking must be used in the case of any appointment made after 29 April 2016.