These Regulations make provision for prohibiting the employment or further employment of teachers and non-teaching staff on the grounds that they are unsuitable to teach or to work with children.

The Department must keep a list of persons considered unsuitable to teach or to work with children. The Department can remove a person’s name from that list if it is satisfied that he should not have been included on it (regulation 4).

The Department must decide whether a person, who has been dismissed from employment (or would have been dismissed but for his resignation retirement or redundancy) on the grounds of misconduct, should be prohibited from teaching or working with children. The Department shall afford a person under consideration the opportunity to make representations or submit evidence in support of his case and can invite observations from the person’s employer (regulations 5 to 7).

A person who has been convicted of a specified offence, is made subject to a disqualification order or who is on the list of persons considered unsuitable to work with children kept by the DHSSPS is automatically prohibited from teaching or working with children (regulation 8).

Where information relevant to the decision or evidence of a material change in the circumstances of the person concerned has come to light the Department can review its decision to prohibit. The prohibition may also come to an end where a conviction of a specified offence or disqualification order ceases to have effect, or where the person’s name has been removed from the DHSSPS list (regulation 9).

A person prohibited from teaching or working with children can appeal to the Care Tribunal unless they were automatically prohibited. A person cannot bring an appeal to the Care Tribunal on the ground of new information or evidence unless the Department has already considered that information or evidence in a review (regulations 10 and 11).