Educational psychologist

Martin was an educational psychologist employed by a LA, providing support to schools and helping individual pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Much of his work related to the statutory assessments required to produce statements for SEN, in line with the Code of Practice. Although his job description was broader than this, in practice SEN assessment and support took up most of his time.

A working day consisted a number of typical activities.

First he would visit his office to get messages and details of any new cases. Following these up took about half an hour.
Next would be a visit to one of the schools in his patch, perhaps to see how some of the pupils being assessed under the Code of Practice were progressing following their initial assessment. This helped give an indication of how the teaching and other support the pupil was receiving might need to be changed.
He might then carry out some observations of classes and individual pupils to offer advice on teaching and managing behaviour.
Afterwards he would meet with teachers to give input and assistance to their strategy and policy on dealing with SEN both inside and outside the classroom.

He worked in a very consultative way with schools, discussing the support requirements for individual pupils as well as helping teachers understand and work with SEN policy and practice. His work with pupils mainly took place in schools but he also offered support to families.

"Working in a team has led to a greater common understanding of each other's roles, which has helped us understand better what we can do and where specifically we can and can't be useful."

Challenges of the old role

Sometimes the different services working with a pupil pulled in different directions. For example some of the problems he was working to address were created or exacerbated by the classroom or school environment, and it could be difficult to tackle these issues in some schools.
There was more demand for his services than there was time to fulfil the role.
The nature of statutory assessment and working with SEN meant that psychologists were brought in to help children at a later stage. This missed the potential benefit to be gained from working with children earlier in the process, before problems became significant.

Martin worked with other professionals in a semi-formal network, meeting with them to discuss children who were identified as having potential problems to see if any preventative or early intervention work could be done. Martin found this multi-agency input very positive as it helped to address problems before they become serious enough to require statutory assessment, when it can be much harder to offer effective support because problems are more entrenched. To maximise the input of different professionals, Martin tried to coincide his visits to schools with those of other professionals, to help share practice and coordinate responses. This experience meant that Martin was very keen to formalise his work with other agencies.

Martin now works in a behaviour and education support team (BEST) as an educational psychologist. The BEST is a new initiative, supporting one secondary and six feeder primary schools. The team is comprised of an education welfare officer, social worker, police officer, educational psychologist, behaviour consultant, learning mentor, BEST co-ordinator and administrative support. It is based in the secondary school, but in a slightly off-site location, to give it some independence and neutrality, and to encourage the wider community to see it as community resource rather than something belonging to one school.

The BEST is very pro-active in its work and takes referrals from staff on any emotional, social or behavioural problems pupils are experiencing. The team investigates what help is needed. The system they have allows anyone to take on the referral initially, but then the other members are engaged as the needs of the referral become clearer.

The BEST also carries out early intervention work tackling school-wide issues, for example supporting systemic change and developing school policies. Recently they worked with a school to help pupils and parents understand what missing school translates into, in terms of time lost, lower achievement, more disruption to their learning, and settling at school.

Challenges of the new role

As much as Martin is glad to be able to tackle problems earlier and deal with issues outside of just the SEN arena, the actual range of difficulties he potentially has to deal with can be slightly daunting as the work he does is so much wider than his original role.
Martin has found it difficult to give systematic advice in his current role, as pointing out systemic problems within the school can be met with resistance by staff.
Martin also finds that working with families isn't always easy, as the ones which need the help are those with the least confidence and/or ability to engage with him and the BEST.

Benefits of the new role

There have also been significant benefits to this new way of working.

All team members have had greater exposure to situations and challenges they wouldn't have previously had come into contact with.
The ready access to the other disciplines in the team has been very good, especially as the fact that they work together in one location mean the assistance is often nearly instantly available.
The resources that the professionals have from their home-agency links are now more easily targeted to problems within the school on a shared basis by the BEST, rather than simply through the professionals working in school on their own as they were previously.
Martin, and the team as a whole, have been clear about the finite nature of the work they are doing, and the importance of a systematic focus for it. Due to this clarity of focus they have managed to achieve what they feel is sustainable change in the schools they work with. This pace of change has also meant that the team members have had to focus a lot on training, which has helped prevent their professional skills from atrophying.

Martin still works for his home agency for two days a week, and with BEST for two days a week, so his role is a shared one rather than entirely within the BEST. However, in his home-agency role he has a new responsibility for the multi-agency working group the education service has set up to help share skills and good practice within the service.

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Last updated on 30/04/2009

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