5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the new professional standards for teaching and leadership? (OAQ51118)[W]

Thank you, Llyr. The new professional standards for teaching and leadership have been published on Learning Wales and in the professional learning passport, which is, as you will know, hosted by the Education Workforce Council. Newly qualified teachers starting induction from this September are using the new standards, and serving teachers and school leaders will adopt the new standards by September 2018.

Thank you for that response. What I want to ask is who do you now believe should take ownership of those standards? Who do you think should be driving them forward to ensure that they are used better than the previous standards? Will the Education Workforce Council, for example, have a role in that regard, because in every other country the corresponding body does deliver that role?

Presiding Officer, the Member asks who should own these standards: the profession. The profession should own the standards, and I’m pleased to say there is broad support from the profession for these new standards. Our new proposals replace 55 previous standards with five new key standards, and, of course, the EWC have had a very important role in helping in the development of them. At present, those standards have been incorporated into the EWC’s professional learning passport, and I will keep under review whether the EWC should have an increased role in this particular area.

Well, we can’t hang around waiting for you to make a decision here. A decision was actually made by the previous Cabinet in the previous Government and was simply not followed through in terms of extending the remit of the Education Workforce Council, which is the profession, effectively, in Wales. You say that the profession should own these things. Why can’t you give responsibility to the profession’s body, the EWC, to have responsibility for shaping these professional standards going forward? You say, Cabinet Secretary, that these are just five standards replacing 55 standards. Actually, it’s a 100-odd-slide PowerPoint, effectively, that people get through to online when they go to have a look at drilling down into what the standards mean and how it should affect their practice.

When you are finally making a decision on the remit of the EWC, will you also consider the lack of ability of the EWC as it stands at present to suspend people from registration when serious allegations are made? As you will know, there have been a number of cases in Wales in recent years of people who have been alleged to have committed sometimes some very serious offences. And whilst they may have been suspended by their employers for employment purposes, they are still registered on the EWC’s registration list, and there’s no power, unlike some other professional bodies, to actually suspend their registration to prevent them from working in our schools. There is a safeguarding issue here, I believe, which needs to be addressed. Can you confirm that that is also something that you will consider when you’re looking at the remit of the EWC in the future?

I want to be absolutely clear: the EWC has played a part in the development of the professional standards, together with Estyn and the workforce unions, and they have been kept informed throughout the process. It is not my intention at present to extend their remit to professional teaching standards.

With regard to the other issue you have raised, my officials have asked the EWC for hard evidence as to why the changes that they are lobbying you for should be introduced. And when I have that evidence I shall reflect.