AQW 37658/22-27


Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford


Tabled Date: 07/01/2026
Answered On Date: 09/01/2026
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Education for his assessment of the effectiveness of the current process for monitoring the community background of teachers employed in Controlled and Maintained schools.


Answer:
The Fair Employment (School Teachers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 came into effect on 12 May 2024. It revoked the remaining part of the Fair Employment and Treatment Order teachers’ exception.
The Education Authority (EA) is responsible for monitoring the teachers employed in Controlled Schools and providing advice to their schools and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) is responsible for their schools. All other schools that employee 11 or more employees were required to register with the Equality Commission and provide annual monitoring information to the Commission.
The EA, CCMS and the teaching trade unions have encouraged all teachers to use of the online computerised system to input and update their personal equality data profile.
It is now a compulsory requirement for teaching applicants to complete the monitoring form when applying for a post and this is used to populate the equality data profile for teachers. By utilising this data substantial progress has been made in the capture of teacher records for monitoring purposes.
A joint TNC management working group was established to provide support and assistance to all sectors with the requirements of the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 and the working group has worked in partnership with the Equality Commission.
The Equality Commission published guidance for schools with the support of Management Side of the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee and delivered a series of training webinars specifically on the recruitment and selection guidance. The Guidance, ‘School Teachers A Guide on Recruitment & Selection after the commencement of the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022’ is available online.