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What is the role of an EP - Parent/Carer Information

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What is the role of an EP?

About Educational Psychology

Contents

About Educational Psychology

Here we aim to describe and explain the EP role in plain english, and we hope this resource is useful to young people, parents and carers, schools and educational psychology services.

This information is also available in: 
Arabic (عربي), Bengali (বাংলা), Panjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ), Polish (Polski), Romanian (Rumuński), Urdu (اردو).”

Contents

These are the subjects discussed in each section

  • EP work
  • Contexts that EPs work in
  • Early intervention
  • Working together
  • EP assessment – what this means
  • EP reports

A large part of our job is about working with children who experience special educational needs, but this doesn’t represent the range and variety of work that we do.

We work with children and young people who experience a broad range of needs, some examples include children and young people who:

  • Find communicating difficult e.g. have trouble expressing themselves or find playing with others tricky
  • Find an area or areas of learning difficult e.g. are having trouble learning to read or remember things
  • Might be feeling low, worried, angry or want to hurt themselves
  • Have a disability or sensory impairment
  • Writing reports to support the statutory assessment process

As well as working with children who experience a wide range of needs, we work a lot with parents, teachers and other professionals. This work is wide ranging and benefits all children. Some examples of this type of working include:

This is just a small sample of the work that EPs do. If you want to know more, talk with your EP.

The majority of EPs are employed by local authorities, but work across public and private sectors is becoming more prevalent (DfE, 2019). Working contexts for EPs include:

  • Local authorities
  • Social enterprises
  • Community interest companies
  • Cooperatives
  • Charities
  • Multi-academy trusts
  • Private EP services
  • Private sole traders

There will be differences in how EPs within these contexts offer and deliver psychology, but all educational psychologists are registered to practice with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) meaning that they all need to adhere to the same standards of conduct, proficiency and continuing professional development.

Psychologists are also likely to practice in line with various codes of ethics, for example the British Psychological Society Code of Ethics and Conduct.

Early intervention can be powerful, though sometimes people can wait until a situation feels at crisis point before requesting EP involvement.

Rarely, in our experience, do problems suddenly appear. Often, adults who work with children and young people have a gut feeling that something isn’t right. We’d encourage you to think about speaking to your EP at this early stage, even for reassurance. Sometimes an EP might suggest that the best support would come from another agency or professional.

EPs don’t have magic wands and won’t be able to ‘fix’ the problem or offer simple strategies that will solve all difficulties that a child or young person might be experiencing.

Understanding ‘the problem’

EPs know that by the time they’re asked to work with adults, children and young people, ‘the problem’ can be or seem complex and messy. Often we’re asked to work in situations where the problem has been around for a long time. Although the people we work with often really want the problem to stop or go away, it wouldn’t be fair to arrive at a school and assume that there are easy actions that need to happen and everything will be fine. This often leads people to feel like an EP hasn’t listened or fully understood how serious the problem is.

It is likely that strategies and interventions will have been tried but, for whatever reason, the situation hasn’t improved. Discussing this with an EP, who can use psychology to help unpick what has been tried, is likely to help towards working out what to try next.

Working together

Every child is unique, as is every class, teacher, parent or carer and so every solution needs to be carefully considered and any suggestions need to be right for everyone involved. While certain suggestions or actions might be right for a school, they might not be right for a particular child. EPs will most often want to work with different people to jointly solve a problem. Teachers have expertise about their classrooms and the curriculum. Parents and carers have deep expertise and knowledge about their children. EPs have expertise in child development and psychology.

Coming together and sharing all this expertise is the best way to solve problems, but we’re also aware that this isn’t a quick fix process. In our experience one of the most powerful steps forward is having a shared understanding of what is going on, and what changes we would like to see in the future.

EP assessment can be any number of things which help to develop a holistic understanding of a child’s life – their needs, views and perhaps more importantly, their strengths

No two EP assessments are the same. Sometimes there is a view that an EP assessment means one particular way of working, or doing one particular thing and so it can be a confusing term. Really, an EP assessment is anything that an EP does to try and make sense of the situation.

We know that every child is different. They have their own needs, strengths, skills and aspirations. Also, every family, school, classroom and teacher is different. With all this difference it might be odd if an EP did the same thing with every case they worked on.

There are a range of tools or techniques that an EP might use to try and make sense of the situation they are working with. It’s impossible to list all of them and the best advice would be to talk to your EP to ask them what they are doing and why. We’ve tried to cover the most common ones below:

Having a conversation

Having a conversation can often be the most useful way of trying to understand what is going on, from different perspectives. Parents, teachers and children will all have different views about ‘the problem’ and it’s important to try to understand these views. EPs might call these conversations different things e.g. a consultation or a joint problem solving conversation.

These conversations involve a great deal of psychology. EPs think carefully about the questions they ask, including when and how these questions are said. An EP’s work is really helped by those involved allowing plenty of time in a safe space to really talk and think about the situation that is causing concern.

Gaining a child or young person’s views

This is an important part of an EP’s job. Often, we’re asked to become involved to support a child or young person who seems to be experiencing difficulties. Children and young people are at the centre of our thinking and work and so it’s important to try to understand what they think about what is going on, what the difficulties are and what they think is working well.

Again, there are a huge range of tools and techniques that an EP can use to gain a child’s view and no two children will be the same. In most cases, an EP will decide what tools or techniques to use based on the conversations they have with adults that know that child best.

Observation

Often it can be useful to observe a child at school. This can help an EP understand what life might be like for the young person they’re working with. An observation can give an EP the chance to think about what a child or young person might be struggling with, but also what’s already working well in a particular situation. A key focus of these observations is exploring environmental influences on a child’s learning, wellbeing and development.

It can be difficult for school staff to have the time to carry out an in-depth, focused observation and so sometimes an EP might spot things that have previously been missed. EPs might carry out observations in lots of different ways e.g. at different times, in different places. This is because we know that children and young people can behave in different ways in different environments.

Cognitive assessment

Cognitive assessments can be done in lots of different ways and a cognitive assessment is not the same as a cognitive test.

This can be a tricky term to understand. ‘Cognitive’ refers to anything to do with thinking or learning. This means that a ‘cognitive assessment’ might look at a whole range of skills e.g. memory, problem solving, attention skills, learning.

A cognitive test is a usually a series of activities carried out in a controlled way, designed to ‘test’ different skills. They are also referred to as psychometric assessments.

  • Cognitive tests can give a series of scores that can then be compared to a larger group of children of the same age.
  • Cognitive tests can tell us what a child can do in the test situation with no help or encouragement (we sometimes call this mediation).
  • Cognitive tests give a snapshot of performance on the day

There are lots of other tools that EPs can use to carry out a cognitive assessment with children and young people. A popular and effective way is to do a dynamic assessment with a child or young person.

Dynamic assessments (as the name suggests) are ways of working with a child or young person that help people understand a few things:

  • What a child or young person can do by themselves
  • What they can do with the careful help of an adult
  • What type of help and support is best moving a child’s learning on

Dynamic assessment also allows an EP to explore other things that can affect learning. These things include motivation to learn, how the child thinks about themselves as a learner (mindset) or the impact of the language used by the EP or the task itself.

It can be useful if a teacher watches an EP carry out a dynamic assessment – lots of what they observe will be directly relevant for the classroom. Cognitive tests usually can’t be observed.

It’s important to think about why you need an EP report and what you hope it will do or give you.

Just like no two EP assessments are the same, no two EP reports are the same. When EPs hear that a report is needed, they’re likely to want to know a few things:

  • What is it you hope a report will do?
  • What do you think a report will give you?
  • What would be different if you had a report written by an EP?

EPs do write lots of reports; these are often the products of our work. In our experience it is usually EP involvement i.e. what the EP does, that people value most. Once we have been involved, we can then decide together what type of product is going to be most useful e.g. a letter, a record of our conversation, or a lengthier report.

Sometimes there is a big focus on an ‘EP report’ because there can be an assumption that EPs are gatekeepers to something called Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), or places at a special school. This is not the case. The information provided by an EP is designed to identify a child’s strengths and needs, and then describe the types of things that should be in place to make sure that a child’s needs are met. An EP report can details what was agreed during the EP’s work, and it can help people to make decisions but it shouldn’t say whether a child should receive an EHCP or what school they should go to.

We have designed this content and the translations to be open-access and shareable. Educational psychology services are welcome (and encouraged) to share and adapt any of the content here. In line with our Creative Commons License what we ask is:

  • You give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made
  • The content isn’t used primarily for commercial purposes
  • You make your own contributions shareable

Thanks

Edpsy.org.uk is an online space for educational psychologists to share, create and work together to develop and improve the lives of children and young people.  They designed this content and gave permission for their words to be used across all EP Services.
 
Thanks go to the following people for their input, comments, and discussions on the initial versions of this resource:
Dr Deborah Churchill, Dr Amanda Gaulter, Dr Sue Roffey, Dr Cathy Atkinson, Dr Mary Stanley-Duke, Dr Will Shield, Dr Emily France, Dr Adrianne Reid, Dr Amy Such, Dr Jen Waite. 
 
Our translations of this were funded by The Association of Educational Psychologists, who were a major contributor, Adrianne Reed Psychology, Applied Psychologies, ASK Psychology, Aspen Psychology Services, Catalyst Psychology, Constellations Psychology, EdPsychEd, Max Purpose Psychology, Psychology4Learning, TW Educational Psychology, Waite Psychology and edpsy.

Educational Psychology Overview Guides

Guide to Cognitive Assessments

Click to download PDF

Guide to Consultation

Click to download PDF

Guide to EP Assessments

Click to download PDF

Guide to EP EHC Needs Assessments

Click to download PDF

Guide to EP EHC Review Assessments

Click to download PDF

Parent carer guide to an Educational Psychology Assessment

Click to download PDF

SEND Support in School

FAQ's

I think my child is struggling at school, how can I get help for them?

If your child/young person is finding some aspect of school difficult (school work, friendships, managing emotions for example) it is important to speak to their class or form teacher first.  They will be able to listen to your concerns, share information about how your child/young person appears to be in school, what support they are receiving and what other support may be available. Another useful person to speak to is the school SENDCo (Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator). The SENDCO is responsible for overseeing the school’s SEND practices. They assist in the identification of children with special educational needs and try to ensure they obtain the right help and support they need at school.  As part of their role the SENDCo liaises with other agencies who provide support for children/young people with special needs.  The SENDCo will be able to implement a plan of support for your child/young person, with regular reviews with yourself to ensure progress is made. If concerns persist the SENDCo may seek advice from a specialist service, for example, the speech and language service, educational psychology or a therapeutic provider. They can also make referrals to request health assessment via diagnostic pathways for Autism or ADHD if there is sufficient evidence.  We do not accept direct referrals from parents for educational psychology involvement.

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How do I prepare my child for an assessment?

Explain to them that just as a doctor can help when they feel poorly and a dentist can help if their tooth hurts, a psychologist helps by making sure everything in school is ok for them. Reassure them that lots of children and young people speak to psychologists and its their job to listen and help. You may want to explain that psychologists can help when children are finding schoolwork tricky, when they are finding friendships difficult or when they are feeling big emotions (like being sad, anxious or angry) in school. It helps to explain what might happen during the visit, for example, that the psychologist may come and look at the classroom, may ask questions about what they like and dislike about school, may play games or give short activities for them to do together. Reassure them that there are no wrong answers to questions!

 

It often helps children to have information about and/or a photograph of the psychologist ahead of time. Each EP in our team had created a One Page Profile for this purpose. Please look further down this webpage for the name of the psychologist who will be visiting your child and you can download their profile. 

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Can I refuse for my child/young person to see an Educational Psychologist?

Before any EP involvement, we have to obtain written signed parental consent unless your child is old enough to give permission themselves for the work to occur. (Typically this would be around the age of 16 years or above depending on your child’s learning needs).  If you are concerned about EP involvement taking place, we would always be happy to discuss your worries and we will not proceed without consent.

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Will I be able to see what is written about my child?

Whenever an EP writes a report, a copy of this will always be shared with parents. Copies are also usually shared with the school or the agency (for example the local authority) who made the referral.  Where copies of reports are sent via email, the email is always encrypted to ensure data security.

We retain a copy of the report stored securely and confidentially in accordance with data compliance legislation

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Will you name the school my child/young person should attend as part of your recommendations?

Educational Psychologists are asked to comment on individuals’ needs and the interventions, strategies and support needed to achieve progress against agreed outcomes rather than to recommend particular schools or settings. This is because Manchester is a diverse and vibrant city with a variety of different education settings (independent nurseries, school nurseries; faith schools, community schools; multi academy trusts, post 16 colleges, post 16 vocational settings, alternative provisions, resourced provisions and special schools). Each of these will have their own specific SEND offer which takes account of the needs of their own pupil community and the skills/experience of the teaching team. It is not possible for an individual EP to retain an up to date and deep knowledge of each school’s offer across the city. Instead, in their work, Educational Psychologists will focus on the support and ideas that your child/young person will benefit from in any given educational setting. This may help inform any decisions you may make regarding to school places.

If your query relates to a change of school placement for a child/young person with an Education, Health and Care Plan, then this should be raised with the EHC Team who maintain the Plan.  Please note; the EP report forms just one part of the Statutory bundle considered as part of an EHC assessment. Reports from all agencies involved and, importantly, parent and pupil views will be submitted and considered collectively by the multiagency Statutory panel.

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Can you tell me more about specificity in your recommendations?

As a service we are committed to providing specific outcomes and recommendations where possible.  However, whilst there is a statutory duty for EHC Plans to be specific, there may well be some limitations in the specificity possible within an EP report.  This is particularly true where our involvement as a service has been limited (a one -off statutory assessment for example).  It is important, as professionals, that we stay within the limits of our knowledge at that moment in time.  Whilst sometimes we are asked to be specific and definitive about what a child needs in the future, we actually have to do so with caution and not overstate our ability to make such predictions.

 

A core aspect of our work as EPs is to assist in the generation of outcomes and to suggest the intervention strategies that will lead to these being achieved. These are informed by psychological frameworks and research. The extent to which particular strategies are successful will guide future decision-making as part of the ongoing four part assess, plan, do and review process (ADPR). As a part of this process, medium and long-term outcomes may change.   

 

When an EP report is written, based on involvement at single point in time, it is difficult for an EP to confidently predict the trajectory of a child's progress. Assessment over time (ADPR as described in the SEN Code of Practice) allows an EP to assess not only a child's needs in that moment but how they respond to the intervention over time and which interventions are most effective. This process creates a helpful evidence base which means EPs can make recommendations less tentatively. Where this has not been possible, we provide broader outcomes and recommendations which allow sufficient room/flexibility for parents and professionals who best know the child/YP to make adjustments according to rate of progress (or lack of) via regular ADPR cycles.   

 

In relation to EP Advice provided as part of an Education, Health and Care Plan assessment, the above remains true. Every child/YP with an EHCP will have annual reviews of their plan and schools can hold these more frequently where it feels helpful. These reviews (Team around the Child or TAC meetings) should review a child's progress, identify what is working well and the short-term individual education plans (IEP) should reflect this information. The resulting short-term IEP should provide the specificity. 

An example of how support or provision may change and therefore why flexibility is needed might be if we stated that a child must have individual support at lunchtime.  Actually over time the child may become more confident at this time but finds outdoor PE increasingly anxiety provoking - the support might better be redirected to this time rather than rigidly sticking with the original recommendation.  Additionally, every school will have different resources (intervention programmes) and staff with different skills and experiences. Being overly specific can mean we create barriers to support where none existed. For example, if we recommend one specific literacy intervention programme (e.g. Lexia) but the school uses a different but equally evidence-based intervention programme (e.g. Direct Phonics) for example and has staff trained specifically to deliver it.  We therefore tend to make recommendations about the nature of the intervention needed (rather than naming specific ones) to prevent this. Each scheme/intervention programme will have its own administration instructions so again over specificity can be unhelpful. 

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How can I provide feedback following EP involvement?

One Education Educational Psychology Service is committed to working positively with parents and we are keen to hear about your recent experience with our service. Below is a link to a brief survey which you can click on or type into your browser. Or you can hover your phone camera over the QR code and it should open the survey. 

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Oneedwebsite   

 Compliments

If you feel your EP has done a good job please pass your compliments on via the survey above or by email: epsadmin@oneeducation.co.uk.  Compliments are always gratefully received and support us to recognise practice you find helpful.

 

Worries or Complaints

In the first instance, if you have questions or worries, please speak either to the school’s SENDCo or speak directly to the educational psychologist working with your child/young person so they can provide the information you need.   If you have questions or concerns following Educational Psychology involvement, please contact us via EPSAdmin@oneeducation.co.uk.  If your questions or concerns relate to the outcome of an Education, Health and Care Plan assessment, please contact the EHC Team directly and you may also wish to seek support from Manchester’s SEND Information and Advice Service: https://www.iasmanchester.org/.

 

What if you don’t agree with something the EP has written about your child/young person?

It is important to us that we provide an accurate picture of your child/young person and their educational strengths and needs.  In the unlikely event there are any factual errors in the report (eg incorrect names/dates/typos) we will change these immediately on request. In relation to the recommendations made within our reports, whilst an Educational Psychologist reserves the right to provide their own professional opinion, they will listen to your thoughts and discuss their reasons for their recommendations.  Where possible we strive to work with parents, schools and pupils themselves to gain a shared understanding of need and helpful support.  In order that questions/concerns can be dealt with in a timely manner, we ask that you contact us with any queries within two weeks of receiving the report.

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What is an assistant Educational Psychologist?

An Assistant Educational Psychologist is a psychology graduate with additional experience and knowledge in the application of psychology within education settings.  Our Assistant Educational Psychologists provide schools with focused work designed for children and young people, both individually and in groups. Their responsive and preventive work is considered highly beneficial for pupils who may be experiencing difficulty in their lives.   

Assistant EPs work in a variety of ways including 

  • individual work with children and young people and/or their families in educational settings.  This might include doing classroom observations, completing assessment checklists, and eliciting pupil's views.  
  • individual or group intervention work with children and young people in educational settings.  This might include providing mentoring, group work to support social skill development or to support around exam anxiety for example. 
  • delivering training and support to school staff
  • delivering workshops for parents and carers on agreed topics e.g. supporting children with homework, understanding how children learn, supporting social, emotional and mental health
Assistant EP interventions are designed to build each child’s self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation, as well as provide them skills to be able to accept and build trusting relationships with the key adults in school. This will enable them to experience a sense of security within their education setting.
Assistant EPs are not employed to replace HCPC registered Educational Psychologists but to supplement or complement the work carried out by EPs.  They always work under the supervision of an experienced Educational psychologist. 
 
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