Victorian Auditor-General’s report
7 December 2011

Victorian Institute of Teaching 
Audit summary
Background
Registration by professional bodies allows the community to be confident that those we depend on to provide us with specialist services are appropriately qualified and fit to do so. Teacher registration has been a requirement in Victoria and has been administered by a range of bodies for over 20 years.
The current regulatory body, the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) was established in 2001 and now operates under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (the Act). VIT is a statutory authority regulating all teachers in Victoria, covering government and non-government schools. Its functions include registration, investigation, professional development, ensuring standards of professional practice are met, program accreditation and stakeholder education.
VIT is governed by a council of 12 members who are drawn from teachers, employers, educators and parents. The council is supported by a secretariat. The Act provides for the establishment of a committee to accredit undergraduate teacher education programs and of panels to conduct hearings into a teacher’s conduct, competence, fitness or ability to teach.
Recent national agreements under the Council of Australian Governments have led to a move towards national harmonisation of teacher regulation across states and territories. National standards for accrediting undergraduate teacher education programs and for teachers’ professional practice have been developed. They are expected to be implemented by each state and territory from 2012. VIT’s core role will remain unchanged as it will keep responsibility for checking that the new standards are met.
This audit assessed the efficiency and effectiveness of VIT’s practices for regulating teachers and promoting its role and activities. The approach adopted involved VIT self‑assessing against criteria developed for this audit and validation of that assessment by this office. 
Conclusion
The community can be confident that teachers in Victorian schools are appropriately qualified, suitable to teach and competent in the English language. VIT is a sound regulator and its registration practices give a high level of assurance that only those teachers who meet the regulatory standards are registered and that any unregistered practising teachers are identified. There are, however, areas for particular attention.
VIT has recognised that relying on teachers to self-declare that they comply with registration requirements is a risk in the regulation system. VIT has put processes in place so that teacher declarations can be relied on. It will need to assess these processes for ongoing effectiveness.
Further, the nature of the registration system, which puts the onus on teachers to initiate registration, means that it is critical for all teachers and principals to be clear about what they need to do and understand VIT’s role. It is VIT’s responsibility to communicate this. VIT has recognised that only around a quarter of teachers have a positive attitude to it, and that it needs to foster an improved appreciation of the regulator role. In this respect VIT has drafted a new communication strategy to effectively inform registrants and education stakeholders. The strategy is designed to promote the personal responsibility and accountability of teachers and principals in the registration system. 
Finally, VIT does not adequately measure its efficiency and effectiveness as regulator. It needs to develop relevant and appropriate performance indicators directly aligned to its mission and goals. This is a gap in VIT’s ability to acquit its accountability obligations to its stakeholders. 
Findings
Teacher registration, investigation, education and program accreditation
Registration
VIT has sound practices in place to fulfil its regulatory responsibilities. It has recognised and is managing the risk posed by the reliance on teachers to self-declare that they meet registration requirements. Since 2008 VIT has periodically cross‑checked the employment records of schools against its register of teachers. These checks are a key mechanism for detecting practising teachers who have not registered with VIT, for detecting schools employing unregistered teachers and for deterring non-registration. VIT also audits a sample of teachers to check the evidence supporting their self-declarations about required professional practice. Assessing the ongoing reliability and usefulness of these checks, however, needs to be better integrated as standard practice.
Investigation
VIT conducts inquiries into allegations made against registered teachers regarding misconduct, serious misconduct, serious incompetence or lack of suitability to teach. Hearing panels are used as part of this process. 
VIT complies with the legislative requirements with respect to this function, however, it has yet to use its expanded disciplinary hearing powers which came into effect in January 2011. The delay in hearings is not due to VIT but rather to delays by government in approving panel members to hear cases. Appointments to the pool by the Governor in Council were made in October 2011. However the delay in conducting hearings has led to a backlog of cases which VIT is now addressing.
Educating stakeholders
Communication is an important activity for VIT and underpins teachers’ understanding of their statutory obligations to register. VIT also has a legislated obligation to promote its role and activities. 
VIT surveyed teachers in 2008, 2009 and 2011 on their attitudes to it. The general pattern across these years showed that only about a quarter of respondents viewed VIT positively, indicating that better communication of the role and relevance of VIT was required.
VIT has developed a new communication strategy aimed at effectively informing registrants and education stakeholders. It will focus on VIT’s regulatory role, teachers’ obligations and the implications of non-compliance.
Implementation of the new strategy is expected to commence after it has been reviewed by VIT’s incoming council, which took up its role in November 2011. It will be important for VIT to monitor the impact of its new strategy and make adjustments as necessary so that the teaching profession has both a clear understanding of the regulator role and its own responsibilities. 
Accreditation of teacher education programs
Undergraduate teacher education programs are delivered by higher education providers. A component of these programs requires students to undertake supervised teaching practice in a school, known as a practicum. In accrediting these programs VIT needs to be satisfied that the program will enable undergraduate teachers to:
·	acquire qualifications to function as beginning teachers
·	meet its standards for provisional registration
·	understand the need for ongoing learning and development.
VIT has sound practices, including accreditation criteria, for approving undergraduate teacher education programs and for assuring ongoing compliance by program providers with the accreditation standards.
However, independent research projects dating back to 2004 have identified two problems with undergraduate programs for teachers: how to reliably assess program effectiveness and whether adequate resources are made available by course providers for the practicum component of programs. These problems are risks to the preparation of new teachers. Although the main responsibility for addressing these risks rests with the course providers, VIT has a role in providing feedback to them on areas of concern. VIT has taken appropriate action, commensurate with its responsibilities as course accreditor. It has monitored programs and participated in research into programs and acted where it was within its control to do so. 
VIT needs to continue to monitor the operation of undergraduate teacher education programs, including the practicum component, and act to address risks to its successful operation where it is able to do so. 
Performance reporting
Since VIT was established it has developed three strategic plans with the current plan covering July 2010 to June 2013. Its current mission is to serve the public interest through the efficient and effective regulation of teachers.
VIT has a suite of key indicators to measure performance but they do not align with its current strategic plan. In March 2011 VIT adopted six high-level indicators but only one is relevant and appropriate. As a result, the current suite of indicators do not reliably measure the extent to which VIT performs as an efficient and effective regulator.
VIT intends establishing a benchmarking regime which should help measure its performance.
Recommendations
Number	Recommendation	Page	
	That the Victorian Institute of Teaching:	
1.	·	further develop its risk mitigation practices relating to teacher self-declarations that support their registration application through adopting a structured process of continuous improvement
·	annually cross-check the completeness and accuracy of its teacher register against the employment records of all schools and use the results to inform identification of opportunities to improve teacher compliance with registration requirements	19	
2.	·	promptly resolve the backlog of disciplinary hearing panel cases	19	
3.	·	progressively evaluate the effectiveness of its communication strategy and use the results to better target communication with the teaching community.	19	
	That the Victorian Institute of Teaching:	
4.	·	develop a suite of relevant and appropriate indicators to reliably represent its efficiency and effectiveness in performing its regulatory functions and achieving its mission, in addition to implementing its benchmarking regime
·	report on its performance to relevant stakeholders.	25	
Submissions and comments received
In addition to progressive engagement during the course of the audit, in accordance with section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994 a copy of this report was provided to the Victorian Institute of Teaching with a request for submissions or comments.
Agency views have been considered in reaching our audit conclusions and are represented to the extent relevant and warranted in preparing this report. Their full section 16(3) submissions and comments however, are included in Appendix B.