A surge in teacher misconduct referrals has been “driven” by a spike in parents going directly to regulators with complaints, officials believe.

Reports submitted to the Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) have leapt by more than 60 per cent in just 12 months, with the body receiving almost 1,700 in 2023-24 alone.

Newly published TRA accounts revealed it is still missing 52-week targets for hearings to be held – with accusers and defendants waiting almost two years for cases to conclude.

The documents noted there had been a “significant increase in the number of referrals”, with staff and legal costs rising to meet demand.

Record teacher misconduct hearing numbers

“The increase in referrals during 2023-24 has been largely driven by an increase in the number of referrals made by members of the public,” they explained.

Papers show the TRA’s misconduct unit assessed 1,684 reports last year, up from 1,038 in 2022-23. The figure is more than double those seen in 2021-22 (714) and 2020-21 (628).

The agency took no further action on 1,059 of the referrals “due to them not falling within its jurisdiction and/or not meeting the threshold of serious misconduct”.

In all, 244 hearings were held.

The accounts said: “This is the highest number of hearings that the TRA has delivered during a reporting year in its history, an 18 per cent increase from 2022-23 and a 64 per cent increase from 2021-22.”

Staff costs rose to £4.8 million as the number of full-time TRA employees jumped by 19 per cent to 96. This was done “largely to increase capacity to manage the agency’s misconduct caseload”.

Earlier this year, the Confederation of School Trusts warned a rise in complaints was “not sustainable” and putting “significant pressure on school leaders”.

It urged government to set up a “single front door” for parental complaints to ensure they are not investigated multiple times, with the TRA only able to accept referrals from schools themselves or the police.

Legal costs jump 70%

Legal fees also leapt almost 70 per cent to £7.2 million. This has helped reduce the number of older misconduct reports “that have been progressed following a case-to-answer decision by 49 per cent”.

In a bid to conclude more cases “within reasonable timescales”, the TRA said it is holding virtual hearings to cut waits and “streamlining activities and structure”.

“The agency’s teacher misconduct unit (TMU) has taken extensive steps to increase capacity to ensure the timely conclusion of cases, including building additional capacity and onboarding 83 new professional conduct panellists.

“TMU also successfully concluded a procurement exercise of seven new legal contracts to support investigation and case conclusion at hearing stage.”

… But waiting-time target missed again

Despite this, the TRA is still missing targets. It had aimed to conduct teacher misconduct hearings within 52 weeks from the date the referral was submitted.

However, waits lasted almost 103 weeks on average.

This represented a reduction when compared to the 113-week average seen in 2022-23 and ended a three-year run of worsening waiting times.

The TRA stressed that “increasing case numbers and disruption to its services caused by the pandemic…negatively affected” its performance.

This comes after a Schools Week investigation in May found two teachers had been waiting more than eight years for their misconduct cases to conclude.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information also showed 31 per cent of the 1,042 active cases on the TRA’s books were first referred more than two years ago.