Prohibition Checks and Other Pre-employment Checks
January 2017
Prohibition checks for teaching assistants
You may be aware that there has been some recent confusion regarding prohibition checks and
whether these are required for teaching assistant appointments. Ofsted (in working with the
Department for Education, DfE) have recently issued clarification in their November 2016 Newsletter
which states:
“The purpose of the regulatory requirement to check prohibition is to prevent a person from
working in a role that would contravene any prohibition order in place, i.e. a role that would
require them to carry out unsupervised/directed teaching work. That is why there is no
statutory requirement for a prohibition check to be made on applications for any school staff
position, unless they will carry out unsupervised/undirected teaching work. This means that,
generally, when appointing into teaching assistant (TA) positions, prohibition checks will not
be required”.
They are also clear that prohibition from teaching would not automatically preclude someone from
being considered for a teaching assistant role; this would be a consideration for the employer.
For maintained schools The Education (Specified Work) (England) Regulations 2012 prevents
teaching assistants from carrying out teaching work, as defined in the Teachers’ Disciplinary
(England) Regulations 2012. In other words, they must be under the supervision or direction of a
qualified or nominated teacher. This does not mean the teacher must always be in the same room as
the TA.
The Education (Specified Work) (England) Regulations 2012 do not apply to multi academy trusts
(MATs), academies and free schools and therefore these schools have greater flexibility to deploy a
teaching assistant in a teaching role. If your MAT, academy or free school complies with the School
Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) then any employees undertaking teaching work
should be paid as a teacher (whether qualified or unqualified) and therefore a prohibition check
would be a statutory requirement.
Schools can, however, choose to undertake additional checks to those required by legislation to
ensure an individual’s suitability and might want to do this, for example, where someone applying
for a TA role indicates that they have qualified teacher status or have previously worked as a
teacher. If you are intending to do this, it is advisable to be open about this in the application
process so that it is seen as fair and transparent.
For schools who do not adhere to the STPCD (this would only be a limited number of free schools
and academies), should you receive confirmation that a TA who undertakes the work of a teacher is
prohibited from teaching, please seek advice from your HR Adviser.
EPM’s role in carrying out a prohibition check
EPM will process a prohibition check for anyone appointed as a teacher and will be employed on
teacher terms and conditions. In line with the guidance above, EPM will not undertake prohibition
checks for teaching assistants. However should you wish to do so for the reasons stated above then
you should access the Secure access site.
In relation to Ofsted inspections, the Ofsted newsletter confirms:
“In conducting an inspection of an independent (including academy and free) school, if an
inspector identifies a teaching assistant who appears to be delivering a lesson, they should
seek to clarify if this constitutes supervised/directed or unsupervised activity”.
Other statutory pre-employment checks
As a reminder, please see below a list of other pre-employment checks that all schools, including
academies and free schools, are statutorily required to carry out on a successful candidate, including
those who have lived or worked abroad. These are as listed in Keeping Children Safe in Education
pages 22 to 39. Employment is conditional on satisfactory completion of the following preemployment checks.
Verify a candidate’s identity
Identification checking guidelines can be found on the GOV.UK website. However, passports and
driving licences are the preferred photographic identity documents.
Enhanced DBS check
All staff appointments must have an enhanced DBS for the correct workforce check. This must
include a barred list check.
Barred list check
Schools should obtain a separate barred list check if an individual will start work in regulated activity
before the DBS check has been returned. EPM has a model risk assessment form which the
Headteacher and Chair of Governors signs. This is good practice and should be retained on the
employee file. The risk assessment can be found in Section B at www.epm.co.uk.
Right to work
To confirm a person’s right to work in the United Kingdom, and to establish a statutory defence
should the employee be found to be working illegally, it is advisable that you complete a Right to
Work Checklist and follow the instructions carefully.
The Government has provided a wizard where employers can check if a potential employee has the
right to work in the UK.
Documents used for right to work can be found here. Please ensure that you have verified, initialled
and date stamped copies of all relevant pages of documents that you have used. These should be
retained on the employee file.
Overseas checks
This is also known as a certificate of good conduct. If a person has resided or worked abroad and has
disclosed it on their application form you must make any further checks you consider appropriate as
per paragraph 114 of KCSIE. The applicant will need to contact the relevant embassy to obtain a
certificate of good conduct. If this is not supplied in English the applicant will need to get this
translated by a reputable source. The employer must verify the certificate and retain a copy on the
employee file.
Qualifications
You must verify the professional qualifications that are required for the job as outlined in the person
specification, such as QTS, NPQH, English, Maths, C or above for example as per paragraph 102 of
KCSIE.
Section 128 check for academies and free schools
Academies and free schools are required to check if any governors and certain employees in the
following roles are barred from taking part in the management of an academy or free school:
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All governors
Head teacher
Senior leadership team members, both teaching and support staff
Teachers in department headship
This check can be carried out using the Secure access.
EEA sanctions
From 18 January 2016 where any European Economic Area (EEA) authority that is responsible for
regulating the teaching profession imposes a restriction on a person’s ability to work as a teacher,
this information must be shared with all other EEA teacher regulators. This list contains those people
who have been identified to the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) as having a
current EEA member state restriction/sanction imposed on them. The information provided to NCTL
is set out below. Whilst such a restriction/sanction does not currently prevent the person from
taking up teaching positions in England, as part of your safer recruitment pre-employment checks
and to determine their suitability for the position in your school, you should obtain further
information about the circumstances leading to this decision. Employers should contact the EEA
regulator responsible for the decision to obtain more information about the reasons for imposing
the sanction/restriction.
IMPORTANT – where you decide to employ the individual please inform NCTL immediately,
including the date they will begin work, by emailing [email protected] or
calling 0207 593 5393.
Single central record
All the above checks are statutorily required to be recorded on your SCR (single central record).
Common practice is to also include references and pre-employment medical checks. Other headings
may be included at your discretion.
References
Employers should always ask for written information about previous employment history and check
that information is not contradictory or incomplete. References should be sought on all short-listed
candidates, including internal ones, before interview, so that any issues of concern they raise can be
explored further with the referee and taken up with the candidate at interview as per paragraph 108
of KCSIE.
Pre-employment medical check
All staff appointments are subject to a pre-employment medical. It will verify the candidate’s mental
and physical fitness to carry out their work responsibilities and establish whether they have the
physical and mental capacity for the specific role as per paragraph 102 of KCSIE.
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