The Education Workforce Council (EWC) has welcomed proposals from Welsh Government seeking to amend the Regulations governing the membership of fitness to practise committees.

In response to a consultation, which closed on 1 December 2023, the EWC thanked Welsh Government for taking action on concerns raised by the independent professional regulator around the existing legislation.

Under current legislation, every committee must feature at least one registrant from the same registrant category as the person facing proceedings. This becomes challenging when sourcing members to sit on committees involving registrants from those categories with fewer registrant numbers, such as youth work.

If implemented, the proposals would give the EWC more flexibility to appoint members from a wider pool.

In his response on behalf of the EWC, Chief Executive Hayden Llewellyn said “We are pleased that Welsh Government are proactively addressing the concerns we have raised around sourcing appropriate fitness to practise committee members.

“The timeliness of this is all the more important given the recent expansion of categories required to registered with us, and the potential new categories expected from April 2024.”

The response is available to read in full on the EWC’s website.