Role of Ealing’s Educational Psychology Service

EPs work collaboratively with staff in education settings, with parents, and with children and young people, to support those children and young people who are having difficulties receiving the right sort of help.

Each maintained school has an allocated EP who regularly works with staff, particularly the Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator (SENDCO). The SENDCO has regular meetings with the allocated EP to discuss any children and young people who may benefit from additional support.

The EP can support with areas such as: learning, behaviour, social and emotional development, attention and listening, etc. They will discuss with the school the child’s areas of strength and needs and develop strategies to support areas for development.

A child will never be seen without their parent’s or carer’s permission.

The EP is able to deliver a range of interventions to schools for groups of students and individuals.

The EP can also provide training to the whole school on common areas of need to support the school’s understanding of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

Whilst in their second and third year of doctoral study, Trainee EPs undertake a professional placement for approximately three days a week in a local authority, social enterprise or charity setting.

TEPs work in exactly the same way as a qualified EP, carrying out the full range of duties in schools and settings, under the close supervision of an experienced EP. As they are also attending university, they have the added benefit of being up to date with the latest theories and developments in educational psychology.

AsEPs can support the work of the EP in their schools in a variety of ways such as:

• Working with the school EP to support the SENDCo and wider school community 
• Supporting the school EP with casework by:
• Carrying out classroom observations 
• Gathering the views of children and young people & the views of relevant school staff
• Supporting assessment by using developmental and behaviour checklists (as advised by the school EP) and scoring these
• Meeting with parents to gather relevant history and parental views
• Carrying out Joint Home / School consultation meetings under the guidance and supervision of the school EP
• Supporting the school EP with training for staff 
• Training and supporting Teaching Assistants to deliver evidence-based interventions
• Delivering interventions to children and young people

AsEPs also support the provision of statutory services to the local authority and contribute to service development through project work, research and evaluation.

Education, health and care (EHC) plans are for children and young people aged up to 25, who require more support in their setting than that which is ordinarily available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify the child or young person’s educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support required to meet those needs.

If a child is undergoing an EHC assessment, the Local Authority will request advice from the EPS which will be included as part of the EHC assessment. This advice is usually written in the form of a report which will be shared with you when the assessment is complete.

If you have any concerns, you should speak to the SENDCO of the setting who can give you further advice.