Local Reps' News

We are pleased to present the first AEP Local Rep newsletter of 2025! You can view the email version here.

Election of AEP General Secretary

We are delighted to announce the election of Donna Wiggett as the General Secretary of the AEP. Donna is a Senior Educational Psychologist in the Education Authority Northern Ireland and brings significant experience to the role.

For the past four years, she has served on the AEP’s National Executive Committee and has represented members locally and nationally. She has also worked with higher education partners on the development of education and training for the profession and with trade union colleagues to negotiate on behalf of members.

New AEP Staff Members

In the last six months, we have had several new staff members join the AEP team:

Dionne Thompson, Organiser
Dionne joined us back in November and has been busy developing a new AEP Organising Policy which we will be implementing to support and develop our local rep and branch structure.
Dominique Sofflet, National Officer for Employment Policies and Practice
Dominique joined us in March 2025. In addition to providing advice and representation on individual and collective workplace issues, Dominique will be working on developing resources and training for AEP representatives.
Effy Adams, Support Officer
Effy also joined us in March 2025 and has been working on improving internal AEP systems to better support members and staff. Effy can support with resetting your local rep email password and is keen to hear about what kind of pages you would like to see on the local reps area on the website.

Local Reps Conference 2025

The Annual Local Reps Conference was held this year in Durham on 12th & 13th June. Thank you to all who attended - it was a fantastic conference with training, networking and speakers on a variety of topics. The feedback we have received from reps has been overwhelmingly positive, and all of those who responded rated their experience as excellent, saying that they would like to attend an AEP conference in the future.
You can find slides and information here.

Soulbury Pay Claim - Update

The AEP remain in discussion with the other Soulbury unions, and proposals are currently being drafted for the 2025 pay claim. We will update reps as soon as possible on any developments.

Private EPs - AEP Branch

AEP staff are working on arrangements for setting up a new AEP branch for private EPs. If you are interested in getting involved in the new branch then please send an email to dominique.sofflet@aep.org.uk
 

New Online Resources – Your Input Wanted!

We’re currently developing new resources for EPs to be shared on the AEP website and would love to hear from you! Please let us know what materials, guidance, or tools you would find most useful in your role — your feedback will help shape a more valuable online hub for all members. Please email your ideas to dionne.thompson@aep.org.uk

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Survey

To inform our future work and guidance on AI for AEP members, we would appreciate your input into if - and how- you're using AI now, and how you feel about AI in the future.

We’d like to kickstart this research by surveying reps. Please take some time to complete our quick survey – feel free to reflect and discuss with colleagues.

Dates for your diary

AEP Rep Advice Surgeries
These are held monthly with National Officer for Employment, Dominique Sofflet. These sessions are virtual and take place on the second Tuesday of every month between 4-5pm. They are informal drop-in sessions where reps can ask questions, discuss local issues and hear from fellow reps.

Next surgery date: Tuesday 8th July, 4pm to 5pm. All AEP reps are welcome to attend.

Local Reps Training 2025
Date: 30th September - 2nd October
An in person three day, residential local reps training course will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sheffield this year.

Please click here to find out more and apply.

(Please note: places are limited to 12 and allocated in preference to first time attendees).

Trainee & Newly Qualified EP Conference: Adapting to Practice for Early Career EPs (Virtual)
Date: 16th October 2025
Find out more
We look forward to welcoming all current TEPs and newly qualified EPs to this one-day online conference; an opportunity to share approaches to practice in the EP profession and network with colleagues from across the profession.