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Speaker 1: Now the Teaching Council has been absolutely slammed by consulting

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Speaker 1: Debbie Francis in an independent external review. The review is

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Speaker 1: commissioned after news broke back in October that the Council

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Speaker 1: had certified sexual predator Timmy Fisher back in twenty fifteen

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Speaker 1: despite a warning from police. He then went on to

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Speaker 1: offend again and according to the review, the agency has

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Speaker 1: lost focus on its core function of safeguarding children. Erica

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Speaker 1: Stanford is the Education Minister High Erica hi Ether, what

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Speaker 1: does it mean if it's lost focus on its actual job.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the findings of Debbie Francis were that

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Speaker 2: it had become a very political organization and that viewed

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Speaker 2: itself as more of a friend to the teacher and

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Speaker 2: a body who was enhancing the profession, the status of

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Speaker 2: the profession profession, rather than holding them to account and

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Speaker 2: regulating them and viewing themselves as a child protection agency.

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Speaker 2: And when those words were spoken to me before I'd

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Speaker 2: read the report by the Public Service Commissioner who gave

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Speaker 2: me an update, you know, it was like a keck

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Speaker 2: in the guts. How could they not view themselves as

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Speaker 2: a child protection agency? Serious concerns here.

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Speaker 1: Is this a case of them having an original kind

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Speaker 1: of remit for their job, but just going off on

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Speaker 1: some random tangent that they've decided it was important for them.

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Speaker 2: I think there's a few things. Yes, they have been

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Speaker 2: diluted in their core focus, but I don't think that's

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Speaker 2: to blame entirely. I think if you read the report,

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Speaker 2: it also states that the hiring decisions that were made

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Speaker 2: were of people who rather than their capability, their experience,

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Speaker 2: or their qualifications in terms of being a regulator, they

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Speaker 2: were hiring people who were similar to the chief executive,

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Speaker 2: who were hired for their appliability rather than their capability.

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Speaker 2: And so those two things together are a recipe for disaster.

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Speaker 2: We think we're a friend to the profession, and we're

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Speaker 2: not hiring people who are actually having the experience.

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Speaker 1: What do you make exactly?

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Speaker 2: What?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you make of the fact that the

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Speaker 1: CE didn't give an interview to the reviewer?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, there are more reviews or reports that are

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Speaker 2: due to come out into a range of things.

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Speaker 1: In particular.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, nothing to do with me. Of course, these

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Speaker 2: are things that have been ordered by the board or

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Speaker 2: the Public Service Commission, So those will come out in

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Speaker 2: the next more to come in the next week.

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Speaker 1: Yes, okay, what's your plan here?

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Speaker 2: Well, I already suspected that there were problems just from

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Speaker 2: what I'd heard, and we already have switched the makeup

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Speaker 2: of the board that governs this organization to have more

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Speaker 2: ministerial appointed people because a big part of the problem

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Speaker 2: is people on the board did not have the capability

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Speaker 2: and overseeing a regulatory body. So I have got more

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Speaker 2: ministerial appointments. Now I've got a new piece of legislation

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Speaker 2: going through that will strip them of all of those

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Speaker 2: periphery things that they've been tasked with doming by the

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Speaker 2: previous government and just making them focus on their core

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Speaker 2: duties of being a regulator. But in the light of

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Speaker 2: this report that I got on Christmas Eve, I have

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Speaker 2: now asked my officials to provide me more policy advice.

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Speaker 2: And when I received that, I may well make some

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Speaker 2: further decisions about the about the organization.

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Speaker 1: Because you don't you don't have enough work at the moment, America.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, when it comes to protecting children, I will

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Speaker 2: make more time.

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Speaker 1: Good on here, because your plate is full. I would say, listen,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for your time appreciate it, Go

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Speaker 1: have a lovely afternoon. Erica Standford, Education Minister. For more

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