General Teaching Council

The General Teaching Council (GTC) (England and Wales) was the culmination of a series of initiatives intended to push for the creation of an English General Teaching Council. There had been previous attempts by CATEC (Campaign for a General Teaching Council) in 1980-1981; the Joint Council of Heads in 1982; and a UCET (Universities Council for the the Education of Teachers) led the initiative from 1983-1990. This last was a grouping of educational and teaching organisations which led to the creation of a GTC working party chaired by John Sayer. The working party held meetings, wrote papers on the role and function of a GTC and put together an outline for a development action plan.

This work was taken forward by the creation of a registered company named GTC (England and Wales), incorporated in August 1988. Its first directors were Mary Russell and John Sayer, and the company lay dormant for a year until it could take over officially from the UCET initiative ( in February 1990). Its aims were to promote' the establishment of a statutory GTC for England and Wales' and '... to liaise with the teaching profession and its representative associations, with statutory and non-statutory educational bodies, and with others representing key public interests'.

The elected executive committee of GTC (England and Wales) comprised 8 Honorary Directors and 1 Honorary Secretary. The Directors were taken from various associations which had been meeting on an informal basis to further the idea of a general council, a grouping which was known as the Forum. John Sayer became the Honorary Secretary. For the next nine years, the Executive Committee met one month before and after each of the termly Forum meetings. Following an initial rotation of the Chair, John Tomlinson was approached to act as a permanent Chairman in 1990. In 1994, Malcom Lee became the Honorary Treasurer, John Sayer became Vice-Chair, and Roger Haslam took over as Secretary. Administration was undertaken on shoe-string budget provided by contributions from Forum associations, and the work was mostly voluntary. Tomlinson, Sayer, Haslam and Lee remained as the main administrators untill 2000. The GTC (England and Wales) was housed in a NATFHE building in Britannia Street, London.

Alongside the GTC (England and Wales), which acted as a political pressure group, the GTC (England and Wales) Trust was created as registered educational charity. This parallel organisation focused on the non-political aspect of the work and served as a vehicle for deliberations on professional matters. Its charitable status allowed it to accept money from funding bodies such us the Paul Hamlym Trust, the NATFHE Educational Trust and the Association of Education Committees Trust.

The GTC (England and Wales) and the associated Trust worked hard to promote legislation for a statutory GTC. It also produced written proposals and responses on teacher induction, initial teacher education and training, and continuing professional development. Links were formed with other teaching councils, especially Scotland, as well as organisations such as CATE (later the TTA), OFSTED, SCAA (now QCA), FEDA, and local authority associations such as WJEC, ACC and AMA.

A General Teaching Council for England was formally agreed in 1998 by the Teaching and Higher Education Act, which also made provision for the establishment of a General Teaching Council for Wales. The GTC for England was finally founded in September 2000 after several years of negotiotions. The GTC ( England and Wales) and GTC ( England and Wales) Trust were dissolved in 2001.