Education Secretary’s statement on sexual offenders

19 January 2006

Commenting on the Education Secretary’s statement on the position of teachers who are registered sexual offenders, Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers representing 267,000 members, said:

“The Education Secretary’s statement is welcome. Teachers and parents need to have confidence restored on how registered sexual offenders are to be dealt with in future.

“Being a registered sexual offender should mean that a person qualified to teach should no longer be allowed in the classroom. No one in the position of regularly having to report to the police because of a sexual offence should simply have restrictions placed on the age groups or the gender of the children they are allowed to teach. That does not provide sufficient assurances to parents and teachers that the children in our schools are sufficiently protected from known risks.

“Of course there needs to be safeguards against the wrong person being barred from teaching but such safeguards should not prevent virtually automatic inclusion on List 99.

“The expert group which is to advise the Education Secretary in the short term should also include parents. It is their children who are at risk from the inadequacies that currently prevail.

“It may be necessary for the nature of the sexual offences that can result in an individual having to register with the police to be reviewed.  There is a general belief that those required to register are serious offenders such as serial violent rapists and paedophiles. That appears not to be the case.

“This last fortnight has seriously undermined parental confidence in the way the system to protect their children from known sexual offenders has operated. Thankfully, parents have confidence in the teaching profession but if this issue is not dealt with properly, that confidence will ebb away.”