Schools are required to have all employees vetted by the 31 December 2017 to comply with Section 21 of the Vetting Act. Where a teacher is employed by the school but the school has not received a vetting disclosure or vetting letter from the Council this teacher will now be required to apply for vetting as part of the retrospective vetting process. For registered teachers this process is being facilitated by the Council working with the Department for Education and Skills (DES) as part of the registration renewal process.

In order to help this process you

• should check with your teachers to see who has never been vetted by the Council. Teachers can check their vetting status on the My Registration section of the Council’s website. If it says “Approved” then this teacher is exempt from the retrospective vetting process as the legislative requirements have been met.
• notify your teaching staff of this process and ask them to wait until they receive a notice from the Council to apply for vetting. Where teachers have been requested to apply for vetting it is important that they complete the two-stage application process within the 28 day timeframe.

If a vetting request is not complied with, a teacher’s registration may not be renewed. Since January 2014, teachers who are not registered with the Council cannot receive a state funded salary. While the application for vetting is the responsibility of the individual teacher, we believe that it is in all our interests to ensure that this process happens as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Your co-operation in this matter would be greatly appreciated, and would help minimise disruption to teaching and learning in your school.

All teachers who have been vetted through the Teaching Council will have been issued with either a Teaching Council GCVU vetting result letter (prior to 29 April 2016) or a National Vetting Bureau Disclosure (post 29 April 2016).

Registered Teachers can check their previous vetting status by logging on to the My Registration section of the Teaching Council website www.teachingcouncil.ie.   After logging in the teacher can take a screenshot of the screen below and present it to their employer in lieu of the GCVU vetting result letter. Teachers with the “approved” status are exempt from the retrospective vetting process as they have completed vetting in the past and have complied with the relevant legislation.

Teachers can continue to access their NVB disclosures via the Digitary document portal.

Once a teacher has applied for vetting, they are able to track their application status online. The teacher can provide the school authority with a copy (below) of the National Vetting Bureau's acknowledgement email of the Teaching Council's vetting application.  Please note that the Teaching Council is unable to directly discuss the status of a vetting application with a Principal/School Manager.

Dear

Application Number : TEC001-201XXXXX-XXXX

The application made in respect of you by The Teaching Council has been accepted by the National Vetting Bureau.

If you have any queries, please contact The Teaching Council at nvbvetting@teachingcouncil.ie.

To view Frequently Asked Questions click here. FAQ.

Kind regards, The National Vetting Bureau

Once the application has been made to the National Vetting Bureau, 80% of disclosures return to the Council within 5 working days. However, for the other 20%, delays will occur as the Gardaí complete their processes. Please note that the Council cannot intervene to speed up the return of any disclosure. Teachers can check their progress themselves by logging onto the link available on the Council’s website. Once the disclosures are returned, the Council makes them available to the teachers within 72 hours via the secure on-line solution called Digitary. From here teachers can share disclosures with schools.

 Should a trace disclosure, i.e. a disclosure containing convictions or specified (soft) information, be returned it will be considered by the Council in accordance with the processes and procedures set out under the legislation. Please note that only in cases where the disclosure highlights child protection issues can the Council directly inform the school authorities.

Schools should note that currently there is no period of validity on NVB vetting disclosures which are dated after 29 April 2016. The DES Circular 31/2016 which outlines the requirements for the commencement of the statutory requirements for Garda Vetting continues to apply to new employees.

Circular Letter 0016/2017 sets out the Statutory Requirements for the Retrospective Vetting of Teaching Staff.