Legislation Updates
Jenny Kellber provides information about new legislation that requires most guitar teachers to register with various government organisations…
With the implementation of various recent legislation, aimed primarily at child protection, guitar teaching is no longer an unregistered activity. As described below, most guitar teachers will need to register with at least one government organisation.
GTC Registration
Recent legislation now requires all ‘instructors’ (the definition of which includes anyone teaching guitar) in either a maintained school, a non-maintained special school or a pupil referral unit, in England to ‘provisionally register’ with the ‘General Teaching Council’ (GTC). It is currently free to register (but they will review this in April). Therefore, anyone teaching in the categories listed above who is not currently registered with the GTC should do so as soon as possible by downloading the ‘Application for Provisional Registration For Instructors’ from www.gtce.org.uk/publications/prov_reg_instr/. If you wish to view the legal Statutory Instruments you can do so at: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20081883_en_1. If you require more detail you can find this by visiting www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si200818 and then scrolling down to the items numbered 1883 and 1884.
You can also view the relevant section of the GTC website: www.gtce.org.uk/registration/provisional_registration/ – scroll down to the sections on 'instructors'. For any more information call the GTC direct on 0370 001 0308 or email them via registration@gtce.org.uk
The General Teaching Councils in Northern Ireland (www.gtcni.org.uk) and Wales (www.gtcw.org.uk) have advised us that they do not currently have a system of provisional registration for instructors – their registration is solely for (PGCE) qualified (classroom) teachers. Information from the General Teaching Council in Scotland was not received before going to press. You can contact them directly via their website www.gtcs.org.uk or by calling 0131 314 6080.
ISA Registration
The Vetting And Barring Scheme (Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act) came into force in October 2009 and covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. All guitar tutors working with children or vulnerable adults once a week or more will be required to register with the recently formed ‘Independent Safeguarding Authority’. There is a proposed one-off fee of £64.00. This is separate from enhanced CRB checks, which will also continue for school teachers as it is a requirement under the guidelines ‘Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education’. ISA registration will apply to all self-employed guitar tutors, as well as those working in schools (guitar tutors working in schools, colleges etc., are advised to check whether their employers will arrange for the one-off registration).
ISA-registration for the Vetting and Barring Scheme starts for new teachers or those moving jobs in July 2010 and ISA-registration becomes mandatory for these teachers in November 2010. All other teachers will be phased into the scheme from 2011 (people with up-to-date CRB checks will be required to register last, based on the date of their CRB check). Further information on how to apply for registration will be available from the ISA in due course via their website www.isa-gov.org or by calling them on 0300 123 1111.
In the meantime, RGT members wishing to obtain a current Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check can arrange this through RGT at a special discounted rate. We advise you do this soon as the CRB are going to be involved in data checks for the ISA and so are likely to become extremely busy as the new legislation will result in several million people needing to register!
In Scotland, the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme will replace the existing disclosure procedure. It will be managed by ‘Disclosure Scotland’ and is due to go live towards the end of 2010. Scheme membership will be phased in using a process of retrospective checking. You can find out more at www.disclosurescotland.co.uk In the meantime, disclosures for self-employed guitar tutors in Scotland are dealt with by the ‘Scottish Disclosure Advisory Service’ who are contactable via 01786 825313.
