Practice Educator: PEPS Stages 1 and 2 Explained

The standards that decide who is allowed to assess a social work student have no statutory owner. They were published by the College of Social Work in 2013, and when the College closed in 2015 nobody took responsibility for them. BASW co-produced a revised edition in July 2022 and now maintains them.

BASW stated at the time that it would aim for the Practice Educator Professional Standards to be adopted nationally by Social Work England, local authorities and teaching partnerships within six months of publication. Nothing we could find records that adoption happening. So PEPS is the de facto national framework for practice education, maintained by a professional association rather than the regulator — which explains why universities interpret it differently from one another.

The two stages, and what each actually permits

This is routinely described wrongly, including by people recruiting practice educators.

Stage 1. A trainee practice educator at this stage can supervise, teach and assess social work learners up to, but not being solely responsible for, the final placement before qualification. Their assessment decisions have to be overseen and endorsed — signed off — by a PEPS 2 practice educator assessor.

Note what that does and does not say. Stage 1 is not restricted to first placements as a matter of rule. Someone who completes Stage 1 and goes no further remains able to support, teach and assess first-placement learners only — but a Stage 1 educator can be involved in a final placement where a PEPS 2 educator carries the sign-off.

Stage 2. Able to supervise and teach social work learners up to and including the last placement, and to recommend on the evidence that a student is fit to practise at the point of qualification. Even then, the recommendation is agreed with and signed off by the practice educator assessor.

Four domains, twenty-seven standards

The 2022 edition groups the standards into four domains. Confusingly, the document itself labels them both numerically and alphabetically, so Domain 1 and Domain A are the same thing.

• Domain 1 / A — working with others to organise an effective learning environment (seven standards)
• Domain 2 / B — teaching, facilitating and supporting learning and professional development in practice (six standards)
• Domain 3 / C — managing the fair and transparent assessment of students in practice (six standards)
• Domain 4 / D — developing knowledge and continuing performance as a practice educator (eight standards)

The standards themselves are more specific than the domain titles suggest. Domain A includes managing the power and authority in the educator role skilfully, and keeping student information secure under data protection law. Domain C includes extending the development of students who already have strong skills, not only those struggling, and demonstrating the ability to work well with others where a learner's practice is marginal or failing.

Who can start

To enrol as a trainee practice educator you must have practised for at least two years following qualification, including your assessed and supported year in employment, and should be able to demonstrate practice at level 7 of the Professional Capability Framework — experienced social worker level. A fully qualified practice educator will have a minimum of three years' relevant social work experience, depending on course length.

All trainee practice educators must be registered social workers. The 2022 standards refer to "the social work regulator" rather than naming Social Work England directly, though universities generally require SWE registration explicitly, along with an enhanced DBS check.

If you are weighing this against the other post-qualifying specialist awards, our guides to the AMHP qualification and the Best Interests Assessor award cover the two statutory alternatives — both of which confer legal powers that practice education does not.

What you have to evidence

The national minimum is more demanding than most course descriptions imply:

• a portfolio of evidence completed with the learner, plus reflective logs and formal essays
• evidence of learner feedback on you as the trainee practice educator
• a formal assessment by a practice educator assessor
• a minimum of three direct observations across Stages 1 and 2, at least two of them face to face
• two of those observations must be of you supervising at least two different social work learners
• the third can be undertaken by a peer rather than the assessor — peer-reviewed supervision, leading a group supervision, or leading a teaching session for learners

Across Stages 1 and 2 you should have been supported to undertake 70 hours of blended learning. Where a course is accredited by a university, the expectation is 100 hours of study per 10 credits — so a 20-credit Stage 1 module implies around 200 hours. The national standards set no credit value for either stage, which is why one university offers Stage 1 at 20 credits over six days across ten weeks and another runs Stage 2 part-time over twelve months.

The requirement nobody tells you about: currency

This is the detail that catches qualified practice educators out. You need to supervise a learner every two years to maintain currency. If you have not had a learner for two years, your practice educator qualification can be considered lapsed.

Currency can also be maintained through related activity — organising and supporting placements, or acting as a mentor to a trainee practice educator. And a lapsed qualification can be refreshed, through a short portfolio submission, presenting practice learning examples to a quality assurance panel, or a refresher course. But it is the learning provider or employer who assesses whether you have retained currency, not a central body, which again reflects the absence of a single owner.

You may not need PEPS at all

None of the national material states that PEPS is legally mandatory for everyone supervising a student, and the arrangements explicitly allow for alternatives.

On-site supervisors who manage a learner's day-to-day work do not necessarily have to be registered social workers, provided they are experienced in a role related to social work. Where an on-site supervisor has significant experience but is not social-work or PEPS 2 qualified, the learner must be allocated an experienced, qualified off-site practice educator for the placement.

Independent off-site practice educators are expected to be registered social workers who have completed PEPS 2 or equivalent, practising at PCF level 7, carrying their own insurance and able to provide enhanced DBS checks. That combination is what makes independent practice education a viable freelance role for experienced social workers, and it is the main route by which people use PEPS commercially rather than as an employer expectation.