Recruiters have welcomed a major overhaul of the system used by agencies to vet teachers, following the public outcry over the William Gibson case.

Anyone convicted or cautioned for sex offences against children will now automatically be banned from teaching.

The reforms will introduce a single banning list for sex offenders, while all agency staff working in schools will be subject to Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks.

“The simplification of the checking regime was badly needed. I am delighted to see that the

new list of banned teachers will include all those on the sex offenders' register,” said John Dunn, chair of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's Education Sector Group.

“Supply teacher agencies have done all they can in the past to vet teachers. However, their judgement was only as good as the information they were provided with. Hopefully the new system will be clearer and easier to use.”

Educational specialist Ian Hunt of EM Recruitment, a former head teacher, told Recruiter the new laws must crack down harder on agencies which fail to carry out overseas police checks on foreign teaching candidates.

The legal rethink was prompted after supply teaching agency Step Teachers hired William Gibson, who was cleared to teach despite his conviction for assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1980.

The agency put Gibson forward as a supply teacher for Portchester School in Bournemouth after

the firm performed a CRB check, and were provided with a letter from Kelly, confirming its knowledge of his history.

“The regulations require an agency introducing or supplying a teacher to check that the candidate is suitable and not detrimental to the school, to obtain and pass on references and to provide to the school any information which comes to light indicating that the teacher may not be suitable,” said Adrian Marlowe, managing director of legal firm Lawspeed. Step Teachers would not comment on that issue, but said it welcomed the review of existing procedures.