The organisation responsible for regulating teachers in England is being investigated by the Department for Education after allegations of misconduct by staff, and teachers left in distress after lengthy inquiries. A former employee of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) told the Observer that the regulator had forgotten it was investigating “real people”, and that the agency was “blindly” putting cases through and “assuming guilt from the start”. The former TRA employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was a culture of mocking teachers who had been reported to the regulator. “One teacher was in a coma and two senior managers made jokes in the middle of the office about what vegetable we should call him that day, like Mr Parsnip,” they said. “It was so inappropriate.” A spokesperson for the Department for Education said this weekend: “The allegations made about staff conduct are serious and concerning, and an investigation is already under way.” The National Association for Head Teachers (NAHT) union recently notified the agency that it is a “failing regulator”. The spokesperson for the DfE said the agency served an important function in investigating claims of teacher misconduct, but added: “The education secretary has made clear from day one that resetting relations with our workforces is a top priority as we take action to drive better life chances for children across our country.” Data released last week showed complaints to the TRA, which can result in the individual being banned from the profession for life if upheld, rose by more than 60% in 12 months. It received nearly 1,700 referrals in 2023-24, according to its latest accounts. The regulator, which now has an online reporting service, said there had been a big rise in complaints from members of the public. The accounts also showed teachers are waiting an average of almost two years for cases to conclude, with the regulator saying it has taken on extra staff to tackle a backlog after the pandemic. The government is trying to address a crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said his union frequently supports headteachers who are distressed by unacceptably long, frightening TRA investigations. “It is a tragedy waiting to happen unless this organisation sorts itself out,” he said. Other unions also called for urgent reform. Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said: “We have had members who are suicidal, who are self-harming, or whose marriages have fallen apart from stress.” He added that it was “easy to wreck someone’s career with impunity” because no action was taken against individuals making false or vexatious complaints. A teacher who was under TRA investigation for a year after “malicious” allegations by a colleague, and who wished to remain anonymous, said that even though the case was dropped and she did nothing wrong, she is “scarred” and feels “vulnerable”. She said: “It is a profession I loved beyond words and now I am desperately trying to find an exit route.” The former TRA employee said that it felt like the agency “had forgotten these were real people” in investigations, adding that teachers would ring the agency in distress, but there was no training on how to deal with them. The employee added that they felt the regulator had become increasingly focused on proving teachers guilty. “If a teacher wasn’t prohibited [following a hearing] or facts weren’t found proven it was seen as a failure,” they said. If they were told there wasn’t enough evidence, staff were “expected to push back”. The TRA and its legal team would contact witnesses “but always on the side of the allegation”, the employee said. Pepe Hart, a former headteacher of the year, broke the secrecy that usually surrounds TRA investigations by writing a critical blog about her five-year-long case and tweeting throughout her five-week hearing in 2022. The TRA spent nearly £400,000 on Hart’s case, according to a freedom of information request. The regulator found her guilty of bullying a group of teachers at her school in Somerset, and banned her from teaching. Despite losing a high court appeal, she has continued to protest her innocence. A headteacher who is still awaiting a hearing after two years told the Observer they were struggling with their mental health and suffering from anxiety: “It has completely destroyed me.” The head has run schools in deprived areas for 20 years and taken three from “inadequate” to “outstanding”. She said: “I thought the TRA was for paedophiles or people who hurt children. I never dreamed I’d end up here.”