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Education Welfare Officer

Do you want to become a Education Welfare Officer? Here is some information to help point you in the right direction:

Job Description - Print Page

Education welfare officers work with young people who do not attend school regularly. They try to find out what causes a young person to miss school and work to improve attendance. In some cases they may recommend the prosecution of parents whose children persistently stay away from school.

Their work involves:

• working closely with schools, pupils, their parents and carers, and others
• helping families receive all the benefits and help they are entitled to
• arranging alternatives for pupils who cannot attend school
• dealing with work regulations for children and young people
• writing reports and preparing evidence for court cases.

Working hours are mainly 9am to 5pm, but there is some evening work.

Salaries range from at least £14,817 a year for a new education welfare officer, to more than £30,000 a year for a head of service.

Education welfare officers should:

• be able to get on well with children and young people, and their parents and carers
• have maturity, patience and perseverance.

There are about 4,000 education welfare officers. They are employed by local authorities in England and Wales, and education and library boards in Northern Ireland. There are no education welfare officers in Scotland, where social work departments are responsible for social work services in education.

There are different ways of becoming an education welfare officer. These include:

• going into work as an education welfare officer and training while working
• first studying for a degree in social work
• first training as a teacher, youth worker or similar.

Many people who enter this work are mature people with relevant experience.

Promotion is to team leader, manager, senior, principal and head of service.

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