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Kirklees Local Offer

Educational Psychology (EP) Service

Who are the Educational Psychology (EP) Service?

Educational Psychology are part of the Learning and Early Support Service and work with parents, schools and other agencies to support children and young people age 0-25.  Our role is to help school staff, parents and carers to:

  • find solutions to improve the learning outcomes of children and young people
  • support children and young people’s social and emotional development and wellbeing

We have all had experience of working with children and young people before qualifying as Educational Psychologists and are registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

What does an Educational Psychologist do?

We understand how children and young people learn and why they might experience difficulties with emotions.  We are most effective when working with the adult involved with a child or young person.  We aim to support parents, carers and school staff working with children in understanding their needs and planning the best way to help them make progress.

We also deliver and support whole school training and implementation work through a project called Kirklees Keep in Mind (opens link in new window) where schools can access training around social, emotional and mental health needs in order to develop responsive school settings in this area of need.

The Kirklees EP team also offer a wide range of central training as part of the Kirklees Keep in Mind (KKiM), previously known as MHST which is available on Kirklees Business Solutions to all Kirklees mainstream schools as well as the Local Authorities' two complex needs schools:

Educational Psychology training offer for educational settings - Kirklees Business Solutions (opens link in new window)

We also support schools to support the pupils in the school when there has been a Critical Incident in their school community. The appropriateness of this work will be determined between the school senior management team and the EP team.

We hold termly planning meetings with SENDCOs in schools and in these meetings, we discuss any concerns about children/young people and it is decided whether a referral to the EP team or another service might be helpful.  When we have these meetings your child’s details such as their name are not shared with us.  We will only ask for these details if a referral to our service is made following your consent.  We only accept requests for involvement through our school SENDCos.

We can become involved where:

  • A child or young person has had an EHC assessment agreed
  • there is a request for a specialist setting for a pupil and there has been no EP involvement in the last 12 months and/or outreach are not involved
  • the pupil is in the care of the Local Authority and there are concerns about progress and/ or development

We also attend Additional Needs Partnerships (ANPs) with a group of area SENDCOs who can raise anonymous cases to discuss with the EP. Cases do require parental consent. Please note not all schools opt to be in an ANP.

When a request for our involvement has been agreed we always have a meeting with school staff and parents/carers.  This is called a consultation meeting and everyone has the chance to share their perspective. 

We will talk about your child’s strengths and difficulties and work together to make sense of what might be happening.  We use this approach because we believe that working together with the adults who know a child well is essential to understanding the unique needs of any child or young person. Using this approach helps us to make sure that support is carefully tailored to suit the child and their school situation.

Often this is enough to decide what needs to happen next. Some pieces of work will only need a consultation but occasionally we may all agree that we need to be involved further, for example, meet the child or observe them in class and this would be discussed further.                                                                                                                                                                                                

If you are concerned about your child’s progress or wellbeing in school, we advise that you speak with your child’s teacher or the school SENDCo in the first instance. If felt appropriate the school SENDCo will raise with the school EP at the EP termly planning meeting where consideration for involvement will be jointly discussed.

Email: Dewsbury.psychology@kirklees.gov.uk 

Tel: 01924 483744

The schools SENDCo should complete the appropriate consent form for the piece of work once it has been discussed with the school EP and the parent/carer.

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Last updated: 24/11/2020