Falkirk Educational Psychology Service | Working in Partnership to Improve Outcomes for Children in Falkirk

The Educational Psychology Service is a specialist team working for Falkirk Council Children’s Services. Our aim is to provide a high quality psychology service through consultation for the children and families who require this most, using a knowledgeable and supportive, team approach.
We can be involved in supporting children and young people from birth to 25 years old. An Educational Psychologist will work with a child and family if there are concerns about the development, learning or behaviour of the child. The service is also focused on improving outcomes for children through training, development work and general advice.

We have published a privacy notice on the Falkirk Council website and there is some additional information about the Educational Psychology Service.

This blog provides an overview of the work of the educational psychology service and updates as we develop our innovative, responsive, ambitious and trusted service.

There is a linked blog with materials, and guidance aimed at Falkirk practitioners. Other people may find it useful too. In particular the Materials and Guidance section contains useful information for teachers.

Update – August 2023

Following on from the Pandemic we can continue meeting school and ELC staff, partners and parents through video conferencing and phone calls where this is helpful. Some parents have indicated that this is helpful, but it is clearly not for all. Our service can respond both in person and on video calls. The main video-conference platform will be Microsoft Teams. Please see our How We Work section. Many of our meetings and our assessment work tends to take place in person. The availability of online assessment methods is increasing and the psychologist would advise if this was likely to be helpful for any individual child or young person.

If you have a query in relation to this please contact the link Educational Psychologist for your child’s school, or the Principal Educational Psychologist, Nick Balchin using the Service’s contact details.

Online Guidance

We have published guidance on the practitioners site to support wellbeing.

We have published advice on this Blog for parents and practitioners to encourage learning and wellbeing at home.

If you have discovered great advice or materials you would like us to know about please send these to our email address in the contact details section.

Consultation and Advice

We can be contacted by phone by staff or parents who are keen to seek our advice. Please call 01324 506600. You will need to provide:

your name and contact details
a convenient time to call you back,
the name of the child, their school and date of birth
a brief indication of the concern or issue and the advice you have already received from the child’s school,
please indicate if you have consent from the parent or young person over 16 if you are not the parent or young person. We can discuss this with you and you can download our consent form. If you are the parent or young person making the request you do not need to additionally provide consent.

We will contact you back, although it may not be the same day.