Four new categories welcomed by EWC

THE Education Workforce Council (EWC) has welcomed the introduction of four new registration categories to the Register of Education Practitioners in Wales. In order to work as an education practitioner, individuals working in certain roles must be registered with the EWC.

The Education Workforce Council (Additional Categories of Registration) (Wales) Order 2023, which came in to force on Monday, widens registration with the EWC to include teachers and support staff in the independent sector. It also brings youth work practitioners in any setting that has a youth work provision into regulation, as well as those paid youth and youth support workers who are working towards a youth work qualification.

Eithne Hughes, chair of the council, said: “It is an established principle in the UK, and many other countries worldwide, that professions in which the public have a legitimate interest, should be regulated in order to protect and safeguard the ‘service users’ concerned, as well as the general public.

“Regardless of where children or young people are educated, the level of protection, safeguarding and commitment to professional standards should be the same. For a number of years, the EWC has highlighted anomalies and potential safeguarding risks that the non-regulation of some practitioners posed.

“The EWC is pleased to see Welsh Government introduce this new legislation to address the risks we have previously highlighted.”

The EWC’s core function is to regulate in the public interest. It maintains a Register of Education Practitioners eligible to practise in schools, further education, youth work and work-based learning. The EWC publishes a Code of Professional Conduct and Practice, which sets out the standards expected of those registered.