Psychological Team

Service Delivery

Educational Psychologists in the Psychological Team use consultation as the method of service delivery. They work with schools in connection with concerns relating to individual children, to groups of children and to whole school issues. Within the consultation framework, Educational Psychologists (EPs) work in partnership with teachers, parents/carers and others, to achieve beneficial change for children.

Planning and Negotiating Work

Work is planned in an Annual Overview Meeting. This meeting normally takes place at the beginning of the new school year and involves the EP, Headteacher and SENCO. The purpose of the meeting is to review the previous year's work, and to plan to use the available time efficiently and evenly across the school year. The planned work may be with individual children, with groups of children or with issues of concern to the whole school.

What is an Educational Pyschologist?

Until recently, all EPs have been teachers, they have had a first degree in psychology and a higher degree in educational psychology. The profession has now moved to 3 year doctoral training, with a change in entry requirements. Trainee EPs will now all have relevant experience of working with children, though this will not necessarily be as teachers. 

EPs know about:

  • How children develop
  • Effective teaching and learning approaches
  • Positive behaviour management
  • Specific difficulties that affect learning, for example, dyslexia or autism
  • Ways to intervene with children and young people to help them change
  • Assessment methods
  • Legislation, local policy and procedures and national research

What do Educational Pyschologists do?

EPs work with and on behalf of children and young people up to the age of 19 years. They do no work with children without the permission of parents and carers, but they do work in consultation with others to meet the needs of children. When an EP is asked to become involved with a child, the first step is to ask the school to arrange a consultation meeting involving parents or carers, teachers and ancillary staff, where relevant, and the EP. The meeting is to share and explore the concerns and to agree a plan of action to help the child make better progress. The plan may involve the EP working with the child's teachers, or direct work
with the child.

The Consultaion Meeting

The aim of the Consultation Meeting is to develop a plan that builds on the success that is already being achieved. The meeting spends a little time considering the concerns, but much of the time is spent developing strategies and approaches. Some time is reserved at the end of the meeting to record the plan.

The plan outlines the strategies and targets needed to help the child make progress, and outlines how the child will be involved in developing and monitoring the plan. It also clarifies the ongoing involvement of the EP. All participants in a Consultation Meeting receive a copy of the plan. This copy is not intended to replace the school's own record of the meeting. If the child's parents or carers are not able to be present, the school should share the plan with them.

Direct EP work with Children and Young People

Educational psychologists work directly with individual children when a Consultation Meeting agrees that such work will be helpful to support the development of a plan. The purpose and nature of the individual work and the hoped for outcomes are all agreed in the Consultation Meeting. Individual work may involve observation, discussion with the child or young person, assessment, counselling or a brief intervention.   S chools normlly arrange for the educational psychologist to have a suitable quiet place in which to work with a child or young person.

The conclusion of EP involvement is determined in a Consultation Meeting.

Access to the EPs for Parents or Carers and other Professionals

Most of the work concerning individual children is carried out at the request of schools. However, parents or carers and other professionals can contact the team directly. When parents or carers and other professionals do this, they are asked for information about the nature of the concern, and they may also be asked to discuss any difficulties with the child's school, as a first step towards resolving the problem. This can also help to clarify the nature of our involvement.

Once the need for our involvement is agreed, we usually seek to include parents or carers, the school and other professional colleagues in discussion.

Accountability

The EP team members wish to work accountably and in partnership with schools and other Service users and to learn from the feedback  received.   There is an annual feedback exercise which enables schools to provide formal feedback on performance

Staff Training

INSET is available to all schools. It is free of charge if the school chooses to use some of its annual allocation of EPs time, but, if additional time is needed, a charge is made. Requests for INSET should be made via the school EP or by contacting the Principal Educational Psychologist, Janet Philpott. All INSET is evaluated.

Development work to Support School Improvement

The aim of Development Work is to research and address issues raised by individual schools. Initial discussion and planning takes place with the school EP. If an EP is available to do the work, he or she consults the school to clarify what is needed and completes a proposal form with the school. When the work is completed we ask the school to evaluate the outcomes.

Work with Children and Consent

When schools raise concerns relating to a named child, it is essential that the child's parents or carers know about any discussions beforehand, and give their consent to the involvement of an EP.   S chools and parents or carers tare asked to complete a Request for Educational Psychology Consultation form. This form asks for basic information and also asks for the school and parent or carer views about the nature of the concern.

The s chool then arranges a Consultation Meeting, which should aim to take place within six school-working weeks of the work being prioritised for attention. It is helpful if the child's parents or carers, and also the teacher who has responsibility for writing and monitoring the child's Individual Education Plan, are involved in the meeting.

Time Allocation

Given the continuing local and national shortage of Educational Psychologists, which has resulted in unfilled posts over much of the last decade, and also the relatively small size of the team, it is essential for the team's resources to be deployed as effectively, efficiently and equitably as possible. In order to achieve this, time is allocated to schools on the basis of: · A banding relating to the size of the school · Early intervention, with relatively more of the resource devoted to children in the early stages of their education (to the Foundation Stage, and Key Stages 1 and 2, rather than at Key Stages 3 and 4) · A weighting which reflects various indices of multiple deprivation, such as free school meals · A further weighting regarding additional considerations, such as a school in special measures There is a ‘pool' of additional time which schools can draw upon, through negotiation with their educational psychologist. As the school year progresses, however, this ‘pool' time may have been fully utilised. Additionally, where meetings are cancelled, it may not be possible to make up the agreed number of consultation meetings. In addition to school allocation, educational psychologist's time is also made available for work not strictly linked to schools. Except in the case of children educated out of area, most of these children will either be in school, or in early years or nursery settings, in preparation for school. Thus, the work of educational psychologists can be viewed as broadly in support of school aims and objectives, even where the focus is very young children. Time is allocated to:
  • Teams supporting vulnerable children e.g. LAC or Asylum Seekers
  • Specialist work in early years settings e.g. training for staff
  • Management of borough wide initiatives such as ‘Portage' or the ‘SPARC' project
  • Planning groups in ‘Children , Families and Learning (e.g. the ‘Participation' working party)
  • Joint work with social workers in the ‘Vulnerable Children' section
  • Multi-agency initiatives such as the “Support in Sensitive Times' working party
  • Contributions at senior management level

While much of this work is undertaken outside the school setting, it is nevertheless linked to the aims and objectives for 'Children, Families and Learning' .