Commentary on Sections and Schedules Misconduct etc. Section 142: Prohibition from teaching etc.
283.This section re-enacts and modifies the Secretary of State’s power in section 218(6) of the ERA to prohibit or restrict the employment of teachers and workers with children. The Secretary of State and, in Wales, the Secretary of State and the NAW acting concurrently continue to have power to make directions prohibiting a person from: providing education at a school, FE institution or LEA; taking part in the management of an independent school; or carrying out work, in relation to schools, FE institutions or LEAs, that brings the person regularly into contact with children aged under 18 years (the current provision refers to persons aged under 19). The section provides the Secretary of State and the NAW with the power to prevent a person from working for a company exercising functions on behalf of a local education authority, a person working for a contractor and a person working voluntarily.
284.The Secretary of State and the NAW can prohibit or restrict someone’s employment on the grounds of his misconduct, that he is unsuitable to work with children, that he is included permanently on the list of people considered unsuitable to work with children that is kept by the Secretary of State for Health under the Protection of Children Act 1999 (POCA), or on medical grounds. The Secretary of State and the NAW will also have power to direct that a person may not take part in the management of an independent school on grounds of that person's professional incompetence. The power to make directions on educational grounds is to be repealed. The Secretary of State and the NAW will have power to revoke or vary a direction except where a direction was given on the grounds that a person is unsuitable to work with children and that person claims he is no longer unsuitable. Provision is made for the procedure for making directions and the grounds on which a person may seek to have a direction revoked or varied to be set out in regulations. The section also provides for the enforcement of this duty.