The disciplinary hearing lasted just five minutes, but its significance will resonate across the Scottish teaching profession.

The disciplinary hearing lasted just five minutes, but its significance will resonate across the Scottish teaching profession.

Yesterday, Susan Barnard pleaded guilty to serious professional incompetence in the first case of its kind ever brought in Scotland.

Born near Manchester, the 55-year-old qualified as a teacher in New Zealand during the 1970s, but has been living in Scotland for the past 25 years.

She returned to teaching shortly before 2002 as a supply teacher after a long period away from the profession and was given a permanent contract with Perth and Kinross Council in 2003.

After being given intensive support to try to improve her standards, Mrs Barnard was moved between the three primaries of Coupar Angus, Comrie and Arngask before finally being sacked in 2006.

Although no details of her time with Perth and Kinross Council were discussed, the charge against her states she failed to meet the standards expected of her in planning coherent teaching programmes, communication, and the management of pupil behaviour.

As a result, she was guilty of "serious professional incompetence".

Previously, Mrs Barnard would have been entitled to move to another council area for work - just as she has done in this case - without fear of reprisals from the General Teaching Council for Scotland, the regulatory body for teachers.

However, since a change in legislation in 2006, the GTCS now has the same powers to strike a teacher from its official register as it already wields in cases where there has either been criminal proceedings or misconduct.

Now, when a council sacks someone on an issue of competency, they are obliged to pass the details on to the GTCS to investigate.

Mrs Barnard's case will be decided in the first week of December, when her solicitor will outline the reasons why he feels she should be kept on the register. Regardless of the outcome, the case highlights a significant step forward in the regulation of the teaching profession.

However, importantly, while additional powers can prevent a bad teacher from moving to another authority, they do not address the more fundamental issue of whether poor teachers are being identified in the first place.

It is a common anecdotal perception that many schools have "a bad teacher" in them and that it is difficult to get rid of them.

In 2001, the rules on teacher discipline were toughened with the power to sack bad teachers passed from council committees directly to education authority managers.

However, some four years after the changes were put into effect, evidence gathered by The Herald suggested little had changed. Figures show just nine of Scotland's 52,000 primary and secondary teachers have been sacked on grounds of incompetence since 2000.

The figures do not show the whole picture. For every member of staff formally sacked, there are more who have been quietly removed from their responsibilities with an early retirement package or an administrative job.

Ken Cunningham, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents secondary headteachers, believes there is still work to be done. "There are better procedures in place to support teachers who are struggling and refer them to the local authority," he said.

"If proper procedures are followed, it should be easier to protect the quality of education, but it is variable across the country and it is the job of all of us - teachers, headteacher and council officials - to take responsibility to ensure that happens."