Standards
Equine Podiatry Training Ltd have been at the forefront of work to develop national standards and UK regulation for barefoot professionals for some years now. We were the key driver of the development of the National Occupational Standard in Equine Barefoot Care which was first published in 2010 and then updated in 2020. National Occupational Standards are developed with the help of government agencies who are responsible for holding and enforcing them. The Equine Barefoot Care NOS sets out the skills and experience needed to be a barefoot hoofcare practitioner. The EPT course syllabus has been designed to meet and exceed the EBC NOS and to deliver a very high level of training within the NOS subject areas as you’d expect from an organisation that contributed so heavily to the development of the NOS.
It is likely that UK practitioners in future will be required to have training that meets the NOS in order to be part of the regulatory processes that are currently being discussed (see below). The EPT course has been designed to be as ready as possible for this process when the time comes.
Regulation
The UK government are currently working with UK trimming groups to devise a mechanism for regulation of barefoot trimming. The most likely outcome of this process will be some form of formal self regulation. Although the exact shape of this regulatory process has yet to be defined, it is expected that the EBC NOS will be central to it with registered practitioners needing to demonstrate that their training is accredited under the NOS. As with the development of standards, EPT staff are at the heart of the new regulatory process driving it forwards so students on the EPT course can be assured that they are best placed to meet the new requirements as they come into play.