Information for Practitioners
The Educational Psychology Service provides a service for individual children through a consultation approach. This means we are speaking to and advising the key adults around the child. There is significant evidence that a consultation approach, involving problem solving, identifying interventions and review, can have a very positive impact. Unfortunately we cannot offer this universally. We provide a tiered approach to our service delivery which means we consider individual children at stage 3 of the Falkirk Council Staged Intervention Approach as follows:
Stage 1 – online materials and guidance on this blog.
Stage 2 – a general consultation or targeted training
Stage 3 – a level 1 consultation about an individual child by phone or video call
Stage 4 – Substantial Involvement – attending TAC Meetings, assessment/intervention
Stage 2 – General Issue
Often practitioners are looking for advice about a specific type of approach or an area of additional support needs or psychological development. We can often provide you with information on the subject, or direct you to resources and materials that will assist. We try to publish as much of this on the materials section of these pages, which can be useful to check.
Stage 2 – Request for Training or Development Work
When practitioners identify areas for training it is often the case that there is more practitioners identifying this same need. We may ask you questions or to complete our training request from. This is to assist us in both prioritising the work and in identifying whether it could be offered to a wider audience in the same session.
There is information on the training we have provided and make available online. We can always develop new training if we have enough time to explore the needs and skill requirements of the audience.
Stage 3 – Level 1 Consultation
The Educational Psychologists make themselves available on particular days for Level 1 Consultation. Since Covid this has been offered more flexibly by phone or video conferencing. It should ideally be considered as important as having a meeting or face-to-face consultation with an Educational Psychologist. You can contact the link psychologist to arrange one, however this is usually coordinated or prioritised by a manager within the school, so make sure you have asked them about involving the psychologist.
Watch our How To video
We have found it works best when this is arranged in advance either by emailing the psychologist or calling the office on 01324 506600. If you cannot manage on the specific day please don’t worry, contact the psychologist and arrange a mutually convenient time.
Who can call?
Usually it is a manager or teacher with responsibility for pupil support in school or nursery. We accept calls from social workers, ASL Officers/Teachers and other agencies with the appropriate level of consent from parents. Parents can call too, although we tend not to refer to this as a Level 1 Consultation.
Consent and previous assessments
When calling about an individual child please ensure you have consent from the parents, or person holding parental rights. It is also useful to share with us the existing assessment information as captured in the Child’s Plan. This should be in place for the vast majority of child as Educational Psychologists are joining the process for an individual child when the school or ELC have already identified concerns at stage 2.
We will be asking you about what the main concerns are, what assessments you have undertaken and intervention strategies that have been tried. There will usually be a joint problem-solving component of the conversation where we together identify a way forward appropriate to the child’s needs.
The outcome of this Level 1 consultation is usually one of:
- Advice of a general nature and there is no involvement of the psychologist (stage 2)
- Specific advice or guidance on further assessment or intervention strategies for you and the Team Around the Child. In this case we will keep a record of the conversation and send you a copy. a follow up video or telephone call may be arranged. (stage 3)
- We agree that substantial involvement of the Educational Psychologist is required. For our involvement to proceed we often ask for signed consent from the parent, child over 12 with capacity, or person holding parental rights. Consent is ongoing.
This will commonly then begin with our engaging with the next Team Around the Child meeting and or arranging a meeting with the parents and the school. (Stage 4)
Consent Form
FC EPS CONSENT FOR INVOLVEMENT 2018 – Download a consent form and send it to us once completed.
Stage 4 – Substantial Involvement
When substantial involvement is agreed our role will be to assess, consult and advise in more depth and to join the Team Around the Child in that process. This is often helps to determine what stage of intervention the child should be at longer term within the staged intervention framework. Our role is to bring a psychological perspective to understanding a child, their strengths and needs, any barriers to learning and then assist in identifying what adaptations or strategies are best suited.
We have found that this process assists schools and parents to improve outcomes for the child, and we will continue to self-evaluate and improve.
Prioritisation
The Educational Psychology Service does not operate a waiting list system. We aim to be responsive as a service and so we do this through a prioritisation system.
A. Prioritise with school manager/cluster approximately termly and prioritise as follows:
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- critical incidents
- children at risk of education placement breakdown
- children where there is evidence that high levels of adaptation are required
- assessment in relation to significant Additional Support Needs or placement change
- exploratory Assessment to identify areas of concern
OR
B. Respond to statutory requests within agreed timescales
