Employer's internal procedures
Internal procedure responsibilities
As an employer, you are responsible for ensuring your Proficient Teachers maintain their teaching practice to meet the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (the Standards) at Proficient level to continue teaching in NSW schools or services.
This means you must:
- have internal procedures for implementing requirements for maintaining Proficient Teacher accreditation
- provide all teachers with a copy or access to all relevant procedures.
Who your procedures cover
Your procedures for implementing the requirements apply to:
- principals and Teacher Accreditation Delegates (TA Delegates)
- casual, part-time and full-time teachers
- non-school or service based teachers maintaining their Proficient Teacher accreditation
- teachers regularly working in the school placed by a third party, for example an employment agency.
Early childhood employers: what ‘TA Delegate’ means
A TA Delegate is a teacher assigned by an early childhood employer to perform teacher accreditation functions as set out in E2.3 of the TA Manual. They:
- must be accredited at Proficient Teacher or above
- have some seniority over the teachers for whom they make an accreditation recommendation or verification
- are not necessarily the ‘Service Director’ of an early childhood service
- can be working in the same service as the teacher(s) or working elsewhere for the same employer.
Contact your employer to identify who the TA Delegate is for your service. If there is no eligible teacher to carry out the function of the TA Delegate at the employer, contact NESA at ECTaccreditation@nesa.nsw.edu.au.
What your procedures must cover
These internal procedures must include processes to ensure you fulfil your obligations in the following areas.
Support teachers to maintain their practice
Your internal procedures must include processes for:
- providing timely feedback to teachers about their demonstration of practice at the Standards, including where they risk not meeting requirements
- addressing issues related to their practice not maintaining the Standards when they arise during the maintenance period
- addressing concerns about teachers’ professional practice through appropriate support.
Notify teachers at risk of failing to maintain their practice
Your internal procedures should ensure teachers at risk of not meeting the relevant Standards are:
- advised of your obligation to notify us
- notified after a completed or substantially completed performance process
- given 28 days to respond to the notice before a principal, TA Delegate or employer notifies us of the relevant decision.
Your notice to the teacher must include:
- reasons for the decision, including the Standard Descriptors not met
- details of the appropriate and timely support and advice given to the teacher about maintaining practice at the Standards
- details of feedback and support given to the teacher, which may include intervention strategies or an improvement plan
- details of the outcome of those strategies, plans and support
- teacher’s right to respond to the written notice within 28 days and address the issues.
Management of teacher accreditation matters
Your internal procedures must ensure:
- conflicts of interest are managed
- complaints and grievances are managed
- records related to notices that a teacher has not maintained their practice at Proficient Teacher are kept and provided to us on request.
Performance process
Employers must provide appropriate and timely support to the teacher to meet the Standard Descriptors identified as an issue in their practice.
A substantially completed performance process is when the:
- employer has provided the relevant support to address identified issues
- employer has determined that the teacher’s practice does not meet the Standards
- teacher resigns before fully completing the performance process
- employer accepts that resignation.
Employers play an important role in teachers’ professional development
Employers are responsible for supporting teachers maintaining accreditation by providing and ensuring access to appropriate quality professional development opportunities suited to their needs and contexts.
Through engaging in a variety of ongoing PD activities, teachers update their knowledge and skills in pedagogy, curriculum, learning and assessment, wellbeing and safety to have the greatest impact on improving student/child learning.
PD activities should meet the needs and contexts of your teachers
The NESA Professional Development Framework is developed to guide teachers, principals, TA Delegates and employers to identify types of PD activities that best suit teachers’ professional needs and context.
Related information
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