MS v General Teaching Council of Scotland

 

An interesting case that the litigation department has recently been involved in as Edinburgh Agent is the case of MS v General Teaching Council of Scotland [2021] CSIH 17.  This was a statutory appeal lodged with the Inner House of the Court of Session against a decision of the GTC’s fitness to practice committee by a student teacher (MS).

MS had undertaken an extended probationary period following a period of ill health at two different schools.  He also suffered from Asperger’s syndrome.  The local authority employing him recommended to the GTC hearing that his fitness to teach was impaired by a lack of professional competence.  MS didn’t agree and said that the reason he may not have been at the standard expected was due to the failure of the schools he had worked at to make sufficient reasonable adjustments for his Asperger’s syndrome. The panel found that the appellant had failed to meet the standard of not only a fully registered teacher but also that of a probationary teacher and removed his name from the register.

MS believed that the GTC reached an unfair conclusion, sought legal advice and ultimately lodged his appeal to the Inner House.

When seeking entry to the teaching profession, a person must demonstrate they meet a set of practical requirements. They do this in an occupational placement. Upon beginning the placement, they must show they meet the standards for provisional registration. This allows them to continue in placement and demonstrate that they meet the criteria for full registration.

MS had requested that reasonable adjustments be implemented at the schools where he was placed to help him manage his Asperger's. The first school he was based at failed to implement any of the agreed-upon adjustments and as a consequence MS required time off work due to illness.  On his return from absence he was placed at a different school. This school implemented some of the adjustments but not all.

After argument from both MS’s QC and the QC instructed on behalf of the GTC the judges in the Inner House found in MS favour. They reduced the GTC’s decision and ordered that a panel of different constitution reconsider the matter.

They believed that the panel should have considered whether all the adjustments had been appropriately implemented and if they had not whether that had impacted upon MS’s failure to meet the teaching standards. The Court said that the panel should have made more investigation into the position and it could have adjourned the hearing if skilled expert evidence had been required.

It should be borne in mind that the GTC’s fitness to teach hearings are inquisitorial and there is an onus on the panel to seek out information to make its decision. The court has given, through its judgement, guidance to other tribunals that they should be interacting with the evidence submitted to it by both parties.  If they don’t then they should be giving reasons in their findings why they have not.

The success in this Appeal allowed MS to have the panel's decision reduced. This means a new panel will have to be formed and will have to hear the case again bearing in mind the views of the Inner House. This decision has now set a precedent for other tribunals and allowed MS to have another chance at becoming a teacher.