Educational Psychology Service
About The Team
Welcome to our Educational Psychology Service. We aim to bring about positive change for children and young people where there are concerns about their learning, behaviour, emotional well-being or mental health. We do this by working with the people who know children best – their families, their teachers and other professionals who are involved. Much of our work is delivered in schools but we also work in other settings and with other agencies. We work with children and young people from ages 0 – 25 years old.
What is an Educational Psychologist?
We are Psychology graduates who have undertaken further professional training to specialise in Educational Psychology. This training allows us to understand how children develop and learn and what may affect their progress and behaviour.
We work with children and young people aged between 0 and 25 years. We often work with the other professionals supporting them.
We are registered with the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and follow strict professional guidelines to ensure we work ethically and professionally.
Team contact information
Halton Educational Psychology Service
PO BOX 137
Runcorn
WA7 9BZ
E-mail: educationalpsyc@halton.gov.uk or Tel: 0151 511 8273
What are the needs of children and young people Educational Psychologists support?
Educational Psychologists support children and young people whose needs can be understood to be acting as a barrier to their inclusion in education. This can be children or young people:
- whose development seems different from their peers’
- who have identified problems/medical needs affecting their development
- who have been affected by stress, anxiety or trauma.
- who have mental health concerns
- who are finding it hard to learn
- whose behaviour is causing concern
There are four areas of special educational need described in the Code of Practice and EP’s support children and young people whose needs fall within or across any of these four areas: Cognition and Learning, Social Emotional and Mental Health, Communication and Interaction and Sensory and/or Physical needs.
Accessing Educational Psychology support for a child in a Halton nursery?
If you think your child may benefit from educational psychology involvement then it is usually best to firstly discuss this with the member of staff who has responsibility for supporting children with special educational needs – these staff members usually have the job title of ‘SENCo’ (Special Educational Needs Coordinator).
Educational psychology support is delivered to nurseries through a group problem solving meeting. SENCo’s from a group of nurseries attend these meetings and a group discussion is facilitated by the EP to help think about the child’s needs and share ideas and strategies about what the nursery can do next to help. SENCo’s must gain parental consent for their child to be discussed in the group and they must be able to show that they have already tried and reviewed a range of different strategies to support your child.
An Educational Psychologist may visit individual children at their nurseries if they have been discussed and reviewed at the group consultation meeting and they clearly have very high levels of need and may require a statutory assessment in order to access a more specialist education provision.
Accessing Educational Psychology support for a child in a Halton school?
If you think your child may benefit from educational psychology involvement then it is usually best to firstly discuss this with the member of staff who has responsibility for supporting children with special educational needs – these staff members usually have the job title of ‘SENCO’ (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator).
Educational psychology support is delivered to schools through a time allocation model. This means that each school will be visited by their link Educational Psychologist a set amount of times each school year. During these visits, the EP will be able to discuss the needs of different children that have been prioritised by the school. In Halton, educational psychologists work with schools to create positive changes for pupils by following a joint problem solving process called ‘EP Consultation’
SENCO’s must gain parental consent for their child to be discussed in a consultation and they must be able to show that they have already tried and reviewed a range of different strategies to support your child.
How does consultation work?
Consultation is a collaborative solution focused approach which allows joint exploration of school based problems to bring about change. EPs consult with schools about individual pupils, classes or groups and on wider organisational issues. Consultation allows EPs to support schools in meeting the needs of pupils at earlier stages of the Code of Practice. It is a graduated approach that allows us to become more involved if necessary, for example through direct assessment.
We problem solve with the most relevant people to come up with strategies that may create positive change whilst also trying to understand the presenting difficulties.
We review with those people over time which strategies have worked and why.
Halton Consultation Request Form 2017
Example EP consultation process:
In a Runcorn school the SENCO and teacher have identified that your child has some additional needs, they have already chatted to you about this and shared what they have been trying to do to help make a difference. This has been reviewed and everyone agrees it would now be helpful to discuss this further with an educational psychologist to see what else can be done to help your child.
