Who we are
We are a professional support service provided by the Department for Children and Young People to enable it to meet its statutory obligations under the Children Act of 1989 and the 1996 Education Act and to further the broader objectives of the council to provide appropriately for the education and welfare of all children and young people in South Gloucestershire.
What we do
Whilst our service is delivered principally through visits to schools and settings, we spend a significant amount of service time involved in the early identification of pre-school children who may have special educational needs.
Our work in schools will focus on early intervention, removing barriers to learning, building capacity in schools and raising expectations and achievement. We deliver our Service principally through consultation with school staff, parents, pupils and other services and agencies, to help address and support the concerns raised. Our Service is accessible to users independently of schools. We will operate within the Council’s Equalities Policy.
Increasingly, EPs will be working in schools to help deliver integrated support to children and young people with additional needs as a member of a locality, multi-agency team via the CAF assessment process.
The involvement of parents in our work is crucial. Meetings in school between parents, school staff and the school's psychologist are considered essential and help promote good communication about the needs of the pupil and the concerns raised. Psychologists routinely visit parents and pupils at home where appropriate. Parents have direct access to the Psychology Service to discuss problems and seek advice.
Service Priorities in 2008/2009
- Continue work in relation to the planning, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme. Contribute to the delivery of the Secondary SEAL programme.
- Continue to contribute to the development of integrated working and CAF implementation in locality areas.
- Continue to work on developing the Services' capacity (skills, knowledge, understanding, resources and processes) to broaden its focus and delivery model into the community, working alongside other professionals.
Educational Psychologists' Training and Qualifications
Educational Psychologists have a first degree in Psychology (or equivalent) and are trained teachers with several years of teaching experience. In addition they have a Master's level postgraduate qualification in Educational Psychology and are eligible for Chartered Psychologist status after completing one year of supervised work as an educational psychologist.
Professional post graduate training in applied educational psychology is now at doctoral level, extending over three years. It is no longer a requirement for new EP's in training to have qualified teacher status.
Complaints procedure
The service deals with complaints as quickly as possible using the authority's complaints procedure. We would encourage the initial discussion of issues with the psychologist concerned. If the matter cannot be resolved in this way, contact should be made with the principal educational psychologist.
We would much prefer to address and resolve any problems around service delivery than to allow frustration to build up in schools.