How schools should carry out pre-employment checks on teachers coming from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (EEA) from 1 January 2021.

From 1 January 2021 professional regulators in the EEA (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) will no longer share information about sanctions imposed on EEA teachers with the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) via the IMI (Internal Market Information) system. Instead, teachers will be asked to provide a letter of professional standing.

From 1 January 2021 the Teaching Regulation Agency will no longer maintain a list of EEA teachers with sanctions.

Schools must continue to carry out safer recruitment checks on all applicants.

For applicants that have lived or worked outside of the UK, schools must make any further checks they think appropriate so that relevant events that occurred outside the UK can be considered, including obtaining an enhanced DBS certificate with barred list information (even if the teacher has never been to the UK).

Teachers will be requested to provide proof of their past conduct as a teacher. This should be a letter of professional standing issued by the professional regulating authority in the country in which they worked. Such evidence can be considered alongside other information obtained through other pre-appointment checks to help assess their suitability.

Read the Home Office guidance on criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Schools can also read:

Published 16 October 2020
Last updated 31 December 2020 + show all updates

  1. Schools should follow this guidance when recruiting teachers from the EEA from 1 January 2021.

  2. Added information about providing a letter of professional standing.

  3. First published.