Teaching Council Failures Exposed: New Review Reveals Child Protection Breaches

A damning new independent review has revealed how repeated failures by the Teaching Council allowed a teacher with a known history of offending to remain in the profession before he went on to commit indecent acts against children, Minister of Education Erica Stanford says.

The independent regulatory review undertaken by Katherine Anderson KC follows the equally damning 2025 Debbie Francis review, which exposed a deeply concerning culture within the Teaching Council.

First and foremost, my thoughts are with the children who were subjected to horrific abuse, and with their families. They should have been protected, and they were badly let down.

The Teaching Council is a statutory body responsible for registering teachers, issuing practising certificates, regulating teacher conduct, and upholding professional standards. Until 2026 it operated independently of the Government.

The Debbie Francis review found the Council did not see itself as a regulator, lacked the appropriate regulatory expertise and had failed to put child protection at the centre of its work.

Instead, its focus had shifted towards ‘building the mana of teachers’ and ‘being liked by the profession’.

Today’s report shows the devastating consequences of a regulator that lost sight of its most important responsibilities.

The Katherine Anderson KC review found that the Teaching Council had at least 10 opportunities over more than a decade to act against Timothy Fisher, including in 2015 when it was made aware of his earlier convictions for indecency.

Despite having the powers available to intervene, the Council repeatedly failed to take the action necessary to prevent this man from continuing to work as a teacher.

Fisher went on to commit appalling crimes against children. He is now in prison after being convicted of indecently assaulting nine girls, attempting to make four intimate visual recordings, possessing thousands of objectionable images and making hundreds of objectionable images.

The Anderson report found the Council failed to investigate concerns, ask the right questions, seek legal advice or act promptly. The result was years of delay, during which Fisher remained a registered teacher.

This is an extraordinary failure of both child protection and professional regulation.

Parents put their trust in the Teaching Council to ensure their children are safe at school, and teachers trust the Council to uphold the high standards of their profession.

By focusing on being liked by the profession, the Council has failed both parents and teachers.

The reputation of our teaching profession is protected by having strong professional standards, enforcing them, and removing people who should not be working with children.

The Government acted swiftly and decisively following the Debbie Francis findings, Ms Stanford said.

We strengthened oversight and accountability, placed child safety at the centre of the Council’s statutory purpose, transferred responsibility for setting professional standards to the Ministry of Education, and ensured all Governing Council members are ministerially appointed, with the appropriate skills and expertise in child protection and regulatory systems.

We also introduced stronger Ministry monitoring and reporting requirements and required the Council to give effect to Government policy directions, while retaining its independence in individual regulatory decisions.

I have issued a clear letter of expectations requiring the Council to implement the recommendations of these reviews and report regularly on its progress.

Following the receipt of the draft Anderson review, Cabinet has also agreed to progress changes to the Clean Slate legislation to further strengthen the information available for criminal background checks.

There is significant work ahead to rebuild trust and confidence in the Teaching Council, but I have absolute confidence in the new board members I have appointed.

They bring the right mix of skills and expertise in child protection, regulation, governance, finance and risk, and understand the fundamental change that is required.

They have already responded to my letter of expectations with an action plan setting out how they will address these failures, and I will hold them to account for delivering on that plan.

The Anderson report can be found at Independent Regulatory Review of Timothy Fisher case Changes implemented October 2026 – Cabinet this week approved changes to the Clean Slate legislation, meaning the Police will be able to provide the Teaching Council with additional information about previous convictions when it conducts a criminal background check.

May 2026 – An Amendment Paper to the Education Reform Bill (ERB) was introduced, proposing additional amendments to improve the effectiveness and accountability of the Teaching Council and public confidence in it, in response to the Debbie Francis review: Elevating the role of child safety within the Council’s statutory purpose.

Strengthening reporting and monitoring arrangements.

Requiring the Council to give effect to Government policy directions, while preserving its independence in individual decisions.

Updating Council membership settings, including a seven-to-nine-member board appointed by the Minister, and enabling the removal of members at the Minister’s discretion in a similar manner to other ministerially appointed boards.

Introducing term limits for the Chief Executive.