Hampshire Educational Psychology Service

Best Value Review

Service Specification

1. Aims of the Service

The Educational Psychology Service is part of the Inclusion Branch of the Education Department. The guiding purpose of the Service is to develop an inclusive education system and an inclusive society. The Service seeks to apply psychology to promote :

· The development and psychological well being of all children and young people within the context of home, pre-school, school and community;

· The effectiveness and psychological well being of adults caring for and working with children and young people.

Further details are set out in "The Statement of Purposes and Beliefs" (appendix one) and the Service Inclusion Policy (appendix two).

All educational psychologists have degrees in psychology - the science of how people think, feel and behave. All educational psychologists are qualified and experienced teachers. They have further qualifications at masters degree level in educational psychology. Several members of the Service have achieved (or are working towards) doctorate level qualifications.

2. Objectives of the Service

The Service is currently working towards the following six aims as set out in the Development Plan (appendix three):

· To promote excellence in service delivery;

· To contribute to the social and emotional well being of all children and adults who work with them;

· To promote effective inclusive education;

· To communicate clearly what the Service offers;

· To improve access by the community, and

· To improve the use of information in strategic planning.

Key to all of these aims is the simple notion of applying psychology within Education. As a Service we are keen to ensure that practice is informed by evidence.

3. Links to corporate aims

The Educational Psychology Service is central to the corporate aims of the County Council - not just the Education Department.

Promoting educational opportunity for all children is key to developing the "quality of life in Hampshire". Our commitment to inclusion is similarly core to the aim of "promoting involvement, participation and partnership to achieve the development of strong communities in Hampshire". Finally, the Service is committed to "providing high quality services to the public through well trained, managed and motivated staff".

4. Other links

The work of educational psychologists has to be within the "Code of Professional Practice of the Association of Educational Psychologists" (see appendix four) and the Code of Conduct for Psychologists issued by the British Psychological Society (appendix five).

The DfEE have recently undertaken a major review of the role of educational psychologists, extracts of which are presented in appendix six. As part of the quest for "joined up thinking" and "joined up working", the work of the Educational Psychology Service is properly seen as relevant to the "Joint Children's Services Plan".

Within the Education Department, the Education Psychology Service also contributes to the Education Development Plan in promoting school improvement with particular reference to "reducing pupil disaffection" (priority 2), eg, activity six "inclusive classroom practice" and activity seven "emotional literacy".

The Education Department has issued an Inclusion Policy to which the Educational Psychology Service contributes. The work of the Service is also relevant to the Early Years Development Plan, and especially the Early Years SEN Strategy.

Educational Psychologists have a statutory role within the Education Act 1993 (amended 1996). Educational psychologists are required to contribute to multi-professional assessments of children with special educational needs. Currently, about 500 such assessments are undertaken in Hampshire each year. This number is gradually declining.

Some statutory performance indicators as indicated in the Local Performance Plan are relevant to educational psychologists.

The responsibility of Hampshire County Council as a corporate parent to looked after children is important to Hampshire Educational Psychology Service. The Service therefore links with the Quality Protects Management Action Plan.

Clearly, the Educational Psychology Service is relevant to the implementation of the Behaviour Support Plan.

Following the publication of the Criminal Justice Act (1998) the County has produced a Youth Justice Plan which is also relevant to the work of educational psychologists.

5. Service policies

Hampshire Educational Psychology Service is large - as befits a large county. The Service has an establishment of 39.7 fte posts but currently funds a further four posts by selling services to schools and by contributing to Standards Fund projects.

Within the new academic year, the number of posts funded through purchased work will rise from four to six. There is one educational psychologist for approximately 4,500 pupils.

The Service is managed by the Principal Educational Psychologist (PEP) and three assistant principal educational psychologists (APEP), each of whom manages a team of educational psychologists (EPs). The teams are large - ranging from 12 to 20 psychologists plus their support staff.

In addition the Service managers are also responsible for the Specialist Teacher Advisory Service (consisting of approximately 25 teachers). Service managers are also responsible for the Portage Service (which is a home visiting service for the families of pre-school children with special educational needs) consisting of approximately 30 home visitors. Each APEP is supported by a senior psychologist who shares responsibility for management as part of their workload.

In addition there are senior specialist educational psychologists for:

· Behaviour and Emotional Development (two permanent, one temporary)

· Language and Autism (two posts - one permanent, one temporary)

· Physical Disabilities and Specific Learning Difficulties (one permanent post)

· Severe Learning Difficulties and Challenging Behaviour (one permanent post)

· Pre-School Education (one temporary post)

· Hearing and Visual Impairment (one permanent postholder - currently leave of absence).

One senior post holder is currently seconded on a half-time basis to Southampton University as Associate Tutor to the Educational Psychology Professional Training Course, paid for by the University.

All senior educational psychologists (including the PEP) maintain a commitment to service delivery in schools, although this varies according to the extent of additional responsibilities.

For the last ten years there have been recruitment difficulties nationally in educational psychology: demand exceeds supply. For much of the 1990s, Hampshire Educational Psychology Service was successful in maintaining a full complement of staff despite brief periods of high turbulence, eg, the Local Government Review in 1997. Recently, however, the national recruitment crisis has begun to impact on Hampshire. Consequently, one maingrade post has been redesignated as a senior post and two maingrade educational psychology posts are currently being filled by assistant educational psychologists. This number will rise to three in September 2001. (Assistant educational psychologists are psychology graduates who hold teaching qualifications and have successfully worked as teachers in English schools for at least two years). Assistant educational psychologists undertake a restricted range of duties.

6. Summary of existing services and delivery methods

Since the early 1990s, the work of the Service has been subject to Management Partnership arrangements. These have now been superseded by the establishment of Standing Committees for Inclusion (representing primary and secondary headteachers). Hampshire Educational Psychology Service has a Service Level Statement that has been negotiated with headteachers. This is an important issue. On the one hand the Service has a dialogue with headteachers that provides a mechanism for matching services to the needs of schools. On the other hand, this commitment to schools leads to conflict with expressed commitments to other stakeholders - such as pre-school children, their families and pre-school providers. The current version of the Service Level Statement is in fact the fourth, and is presented as appendix seven.

Anecdotal comments from headteachers illustrating a range of views about the Service is presented in appendix eight.

In order to monitor the activities of the Educational Psychology Service all educational psychologists have been required to record all their activities since 1 May 2000. A summary of Activity Recording data is presented in appendix nine. Brief examination of the chart illustrates that work for schools is the top priority. The reported reality is that work in relation to groups such as pre-school children is not give a high priority, despite the declared intentions of the Service to support early intervention.

A leaflet for parents has been produced (appendix 10) which encourages parents to access the Service only via schools.

The Service has a turnover of approximately £2M. It is subject to a delegated cash limited budget set by the Education Finance Unit. The Service is allowed to "trade at the margins" so the Service sells approximately £200,000 worth of services which funds six full time EP posts. A detailed staff list is given in appendix 11.

Recent consultation

During the 1990s consumer data have been collected via headteacher surveys. Appendix 12 records a summary of the data collated in 1998 in comparison with the data set from 1996. Evidently, the Service is well thought of by schools (a conclusion recently confirmed by the Ofsted/Audit Commission survey). However, headteachers are persistently concerned about inconsistencies arising from staff turnover. Steps are being taken to improve the transfer of information when one psychologist leaves and another starts.

The PEP is part of a national working group of PEPs representing shire counties. This group has been collecting benchmark data as indicated in appendix 13. In considering these data it should be recalled that Hampshire is a large LEA, even in comparison with that of other shire counties.

The Service budget is subject to the usual monitoring arrangements within the County Council. In recent years the Service has reported a small percentage underspend. This arises from exceeding targets for sold services. Recently, the PEP has undertaken an exercise to seek the views of staff members in terms of "challenge" and "support". The results are shown as a johari window in appendix 14. Clearly, most members of staff feel appropriately challenged, although there is variation. Similarly, most psychologists feel supported but again there is a variation. Of particular concern are the 25% of respondents who feel challenged but relatively unsupported.

A more detailed staff survey has been undertaken by the People Management Advisory Group (within the Service). Further analysis of data needs to be undertaken, but preliminary results suggest that Service members are concerned about internal communication, workload, equality of opportunity and resources. (Results are presented in appendix 15). More detailed work is being undertaken on interpreting the concerns.

7. Competition

The educational psychology services within the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton occasionally deliver work within Hampshire, at the request of Hampshire schools (to date as far as the Service is aware, there has been one instance relating to each city). Hampshire Educational Psychology Service does not have an agreement with the cities. Given the demands on the Service from within the county, and the recruitment situation, there is no desire to market the service within the cities. However, if county schools are choosing alternative providers, the county Service needs to learn from this development.

8. Challenges

Whilst recognising the importance of schools as stakeholders, the Best Value Review Group is keen to support development that enables the Service to be more accessible to the community as a whole. There is a need not only to review the effectiveness of what is already on offer, but also to fundamentally question the purposes of the Service. This is apposite, following the publication of the DfEE report and the increasing responsibilities of the County Council in relation to broad range social inclusion issues.

Whatever the future role(s) of the Service, at a pragmatic level, the group is also sensitive to the need to retain and recruit high quality staff.