What is the EWC?

The Education Workforce Council (EWC) is the professional regulator for the education workforce in Wales, covering teachers and learning support staff in school and further education settings, qualified youth/youth support workers, and work-based learning practitioners.

The EWC also has oversight of aspects of Initial Teacher Training, as well as the Professional Learning Passport.

The EWC’s core function is to regulate the profession by:

  • maintaining a register of practitioners;

  • publishing a Code of Professional Conduct, and;

  • investigating and hearing allegations of unacceptable professional conduct, serious professional incompetence or relevant criminal offences.

Alongside the Code of Conduct, the EWC publishes Good Practice Guides that can help teachers become conversant with the expectations of the Code.

All teachers must be registrants with the EWC before they can teach in Wales.

Fitness to Practice Hearings

These hearings are held by a committee of trained registrants following a referral regarding allegations against practitioners concerned with breaches of the Code of Conduct.

Referrals must be made by the employer if a teacher is dismissed for acts of gross misconduct or if a teacher has resigned under circumstances that would have otherwise resulted in a dismissal.

Third parties, including parents, can also make referrals.

All referrals are first triaged by an Investigation Committee to decide if there is a case to answer.

The NASUWT receive a significant amount of casework regarding EWC Fitness to Practice hearings. Our advice to members is to become familiar with the Code of Professional Conduct.

If a hearing finds a registrant guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, they can impose the following sanctions:

  • Reprimand - a teacher can continue to work and the reprimand will expire after a set time.

  • Conditional Registration Order - a teacher will be subject to conditions, for example extra training, as a condition for maintaining their registration. There will be a time limit to achieve the conditions. Normally, the teacher can continue to work during this period.

  • Suspension Order - a period not exceeding two years that the teacher will be suspended from teaching. Teachers facing this sanction may find that their employment is ended as they are unable to work, called a frustration of contract. Teachers will have to reapply for registration at the end of this period.

  • Prohibition Order - a period of time, not less than two years, during which no reapplication can be made to the EWC. It is common for such sanctions to be indefinite.

Due to the seriousness and potential consequences of teachers’ involvement with the EWC, the NASUWT advises its members to get in touch if they are subject to any Fitness to Practice investigations.

 


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