Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities and multi-academy trusts on verifying teachers’ qualified teacher status and completion of statutory induction; and what steps are recommended where official records conflict with documentary evidence held by a teacher or employer.

The department's statutory safeguarding guidance, ’Keeping Children Safe in Education’, requires schools and colleges to carry out appropriate pre-appointment checks, including verifying Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and statutory induction where relevant. Local authorities and multi-academy trusts can use the department's Check a Teacher's Record service to verify QTS, induction status, prohibitions and other relevant details. The service is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-a-teachers-record.

Where there is a discrepancy with the department's records, employers or teachers should contact: [email protected] for QTS discrepancies, and: [email protected] for induction discrepancies.

Initial teacher training providers, appropriate bodies or local authorities that remain in operation may be able to provide evidence to support an amendment to a teacher's record. For historic cases, the department may undertake archive searches to identify supporting evidence and verify record details.