Lesley Hoskin is chief executive of the Teaching Council. She has taken a period of "agreed leave" pending the outcome of an investigation into conduct allegations. Photo / Teaching Council
Embattled Teaching Council chief executive Lesley Hoskin has resigned.
The announcement was made today by the Crown agency’s board chairman, David Ferguson.
“The Teaching Council and Ms Hoskin agree that it is in the best interests of the parties for Ms Hoskin to resign to enable the Teaching Council to focus on the profession it serves,” Ferguson told the Herald.
Tom Gott would remain as acting chief executive while the Teaching Council undertakes a recruitment process for a new leader.
Hoskin’s resignation follows a series of revelations about the agency and the release of two recent highly-critical reports.
A Public Service Commission (PSC) report released last week found the council “did not appropriately manage all aspects” of a conflict of interest when awarding more than $1.1 million in contracts to a firm run by Hoskin’s husband.
It also found concerns around some of the procurement practices at the council.
And a recent independent review by consultant Debbie Francis found the organisation had lost focus on its core responsibility of safeguarding children.
The Francis review was commissioned after a Herald investigation revealed the case of Timothy Fisher, who was granted registration and certification despite historical indecency convictions and a 2014 warning from police that he should not have unsupervised access to children.
Fisher went on to abuse nine young girls at an after-school tutoring company linked to Crimson Consulting in 2023 and 2024. He is now in prison.
As revealed by the Herald, Hoskin went on “agreed leave” in October amid an independent investigation into her conduct after the PSC launched a separate probe into conflict of interest and procurement concerns.
The PSC probe was sparked by a whistle-blower’s protected disclosure sent to Education Minister Erica Stanford last year.
The report found “serious and repeated failures” in the Teaching Council’s procurement and conflict of interest processes between late 2018 and early 2025.
A Clemenger advertising firm run by Hoskin’s husband Brett Hoskin was awarded about $1.115m in Teaching Council contracts during that time. Hoskin was deputy chief executive at the council from 2016, before being appointed CEO from 2019.
Lesley Hoskin had “consistently declared the conflict arising from her husband’s role, was not involved in awarding the contracts, and did not direct any person to award the contracts to Clemenger”, the PSC report found.
“We did not, however, see evidence that the chief executive’s husband’s shareholding was appropriately declared.
“We also consider that the Teaching Council’s approach of simply excluding the chief executive from key parts of procurement processes involving Clemenger did not appropriately manage all aspects of the conflict of interest, including any perception risks.”
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said the failures were not matters of minor or technical non-compliance, but reflected poor oversight and controls, painting a “concerning picture” around the use of public money.
“The council is responsible for upholding high professional standards for teachers,” Roche said.
“It must also meet the highest standards itself. In this case, basic public sector expectations were not met, and in some areas the council fell well short.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford told the Herald the “significant and serious” findings of this and a separate report earlier this month highlighted the critical need for major change at the council.
“The findings ... are some of the most serious that I have seen. The reports make it abundantly clear that there are various, highly concerning failures and problems that need to be addressed.”
Responding last week, Ferguson said the newly appointed governing board had fully co-operated throughout the five-month PSC investigation.
He said it was clear from the PSC findings and other reviews that significant improvement was needed across the organisation.
The board was “fully committed to immediate change to restore teachers’ trust and confidence in their professional regulatory body”.
He would not comment last week on the future of Lesley Hoskin as an employment investigation had been launched.
Hoskin’s resignation was announced to staff in agency-wide email this morning by Ferguson.
“On behalf of the Governing Council, I’d like to express our gratitude to Tom for stepping and serving throughout this period.
“I’d like to thank you for continuing to carry out your work professionally during this time.
“If you receive any media enquiries, please forward them directly to Tom or me.”
Today’s development follows the release of last week’s PSC report.
A week earlier, a scathing review into the Teaching Council found the agency had lost focus on its core function of safeguarding children and needed transformative change.
And the weekend before last, the Herald revealed Stanford had requested an urgent independent probe into the organisation to check if child protection failures at the agency had allowed potential sexual predators to gain access to classrooms.
The Ministry of Education has also launched a separate analysis of the council’s legal framework to identify potential loopholes that may have allowed dangerous actors – such as disgraced teacher and now convicted child sex offender Timothy Fisher – to slip through the cracks.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the NZ Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
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