Teachers and school discipline

Yesterday the Assembly Education Minister set out the new rules on how allegations against teachers should be handled, noting that they meant commitments to:

maintain confidentiality while cases are under investigation;

indicative timescales for stages of the disciplinary process.

agreement by the police and CPS to liase and review progress of criminal investigations to ensure they are concluded as quickly as possible;

give advice to police and social services about getting consent to share information when it is obtained to enable it to be shared straight away when the investigation is complete

This meets some of the concerns raised with me by local head-teachers.