Falkirk Council Educational Psychology Service is part of Education Services. The Educational Psychology Service provides consultation and advice in relation to the education and development of children and young people. It is a statutory service with its duties described in the 1980 Education Act (as amended by the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004).
Educational Psychologists have gained a psychology degree and undertaken postgraduate professional training, in educational psychology. This enables them to bring the perspective of applied psychology to understanding the needs of children. A condition of employment for educational psychologists is that they are Chartered Educational Psychologists.
Falkirk Council Educational Psychology Service is an accredited service with the British Psychological Society for the induction of probationer educational psychologists. Its professional practice is guided by the standards laid down by the British Psychological Society, and the Society's Code of Ethics and Conduct.
Aims of the service
The Educational Psychology Service aims to improve life-long outcomes for children, young people and families by applying psychology to educational contexts.
In order to meet this aim the service will:
-
maintain a fully qualified and professionally competent staff, working within national legislation and local policies and to agreed practice guidelines of an explicit evidence-based theoretical framework of psychology
-
join school and multi-agency processes to contribute contextualised, applied psychology to assessment and intervention
-
offer a consultative, advisory and support service that is responsive and flexible to the education authority, educational establishments, parents and adults working with children and young people
-
work with schools and the education authority to undertake research and project work and undertake staff development, evaluated in accordance with practice guidelines
-
give support and advice from a psychological perspective to the education authority on relevant policy developments, initiatives and the implementation of legislation
-
sustain productive working relationships with other agencies and seek feedback from service stakeholders, maintaining a service development plan which builds on this feedback
[Back to the top]|
Key features
Contemporary thinking in both education and applied psychology takes the view that children's needs are best understood in relation to their context.
Service practice is based on the principle that the most low-key, local and easily available strategies are considered first. This is commonly best served through the Educational Psychologist (EP) joining the ongoing planning and review cycle, and offering consultation to key adults involved.
Where the psychologist is involved directly in assessment and intervention, this would normally take place within the young person's context of home, school or nursery and in collaboration with key adults. A young person's needs are assessed with regard to tasks and skills, and how best to provide effective support. The focus may often be on those relevant aspects of the context which are amenable to change in ways which will enhance development. The aim of such work is to develop and maintain the competencies of young persons.
Service delivery
The service is organised as one team based in two offices.
Each school has a link educational psychologist (secondary schools have two). Prioritising how educational psychologist's time is spent is an exercise negotiated jointly between the educational psychologist and the school. This is formalised in a written practice agreement.
In keeping with contemporary thinking in education, Educational Psychologist assessment and intervention are embedded within the educational context. The emphasis is upon ensuring a sustainable solution within the educational establishment.
The Service integrates four main working components:
-
casework, consultation and advice
-
assessment and intervention
-
training and development work
-
policy and practice advice to Education Services
[Back to the top]|
Casework consultation and advice
Educational psychologists provide a consultation and advisory service for the age range 0–24. Educational psychologists work with young people, parents, teachers and other adults to effect positive change in a diverse range of problems with learning, behaviour and development.
[Back to the top]|
Assessment and intervention
This work involves collaboration with key adults in the assessment of needs, planning and evaluation of interventions and direct contact with the young person when appropriate.
Assessment and intervention are conducted in accordance with national guidance described in the document, Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland (2005) published by the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP) and the British Psychological Society's Scottish Division of Educational Psychology (SDEP). A separate leaflet is available from the Educational Psychology Service.
Examples of assessment and intervention include:
-
joint planning with parents, nursery staff, other agencies and other Education Services personnel about a pre-school child who may need special arrangements at school entry
-
discussions with parents, school and other Education Services personnel and, where appropriate, other agencies about approaches for re-introducing to school a young person who has been refusing to attend school
-
consulting with a class teacher who is finding it hard to work with a child who is distractible, helping the class teacher find ways of moving the situation forward positively
[Back to the top]|
Training, research and development work
Falkirk Council Educational Psychology Service contributes to the prevention or resolution of problems through development work in schools and at authority level. This involves staff development work, project work and research with school colleagues or management staff, on a range of areas, e.g. discipline, resilience and well-being, anti-bullying, early intervention and inclusion. Examples of development work include the following:
-
contributing to a research and development project with school staff on systems for promoting positive play
-
providing in-service courses on anti-bullying strategies or positive behaviour management for schools
-
research and cluster projects on young people's motivation, wellbeing and engagement with learning
[Back to the top]|
Policy and practice advice to Education Service
The Educational Psychology Service contributes to the development of effective education through:
-
advising Education Services on the development of learning and behaviour support provision
-
advising Education Services on policy and procedures in relation to a variety of issues including school exclusions, early entry, early intervention, traumatic incidents, procedures relating to the ASL Act
-
contributing to Education Services feedback in respect of Scottish Executive proposals and consultations
[Back to the top]|
Service development
The Educational Psychology Service runs a comprehensive programme of self-evaluation on an annual basis. This evaluation informs the Educational Psychology Service Development Plan and also takes account of local and national priorities in education.
[Back to the top]|
Access to the service
The service is accessible primarily through schools and nurseries.
The school or nursery staff consult with the link educational psychologist on a planned basis. This may lead to involvement around a child where there is explicit and informed parental consent. When consent to the Educational Psychology Service is agreed we will keep confidential records of our involvement.
All files kept by Falkirk Council Educational Psychology Service are open to scrutiny by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education. Parents and young people can request access to their file at any time.
Parents, young people and other agencies may access the Service directly. Where a concern relates to an issue in school or nursery, it is helpful for these concerns to be raised through the head teacher in the first instance.
Information about the Service's involvement in a case is routinely discussed with parents and where appropriate, the child or young person, at school based review meetings. If a report has been written to share information with other agencies (for example, The Reporter to the Children's Panel), it is automatically copied to parents and where appropriate, the child or young person.
[Back to the top]|
Complaints
Any concern about the Educational Psychology Service should be communicated first to the educational psychologist involved. Where this does not lead to the concern being resolved to the satisfaction of the service user, reference should be made to Service management through the educational psychologist's line manager.
Most concerns can be resolved at this level but, where this is not possible, the Principal Educational Psychologist should be contacted. The service will do all that it can to resolve problems. Where this has not proved possible then the service user should refer the matter to the Director of Education.
Education Services' complaints procedure applies to the Educational Psychology Service, and can be instigated as described in Education Services' guidance.
[Back to the top]|
Leaflets and further information
General information leaflet.
This is a PDF of all the information contained on this web page.
Standards and Quality Report by HMIe
Information for parents.
Information for young people.
Information leaflet about
Information leaflet about self-harming.
This report, published in September 2007, discusses findings from research into the factors that promote engagement with learning in Falkirk secondary schools.
[Back to the top]|