If you're concerned about your child's progress, you should discuss this with their class teacher, tutor or head teacher. If your child continues to have difficulties, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) may decide to meet with an educational psychologist.
The Educational Psychology Service (EPS) consults with staff, parents and carers to find the best ways of helping children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Educational Psychologists engage in a wide range of activities including:
- consultation with staff, parents and carers on effective ways of supporting children and young people with additional needs and SEN in educational settings, including mainstream schools, specialist provision and Further Education (FE) providers
- advice to the Local Authority (LA) regarding needs, provision and outcomes for individual children and young people, initially through the graduated response at SEN Support and potentially as part of the statutory Education Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment process, in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice (2014)
- monitoring and reviewing provision for children and young people with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) through attendance at targeted EHCP Reviews
- promoting inclusion through whole school or setting development work
- training for professional staff, voluntary groups, parents and carers about the application of psychology in education
- support networks for staff, for example, termly Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) support networks and supervision offered to wellbeing staff in specialist provisions, support groups for teaching assistants or teachers around complex needs
- project work and research to help raise the achievement of children and young people and to remove barriers to learning - this is typically part of our traded offer
- collaboration with colleagues in the School Wellbeing Service, Virtual School, School Improvement, CAMHS and Social Care to increase wellbeing and raise the achievement of Children in Care
- advice and support to schools, early years settings and FE providers in response to critical incidents in the community
- strategic work which contributes to the planning and policy development of the LA - this includes contributions to a wide range of forums, working parties and panels
You'll always be consulted about any involvement the Educational Psychology Service has with your child.
See further information about the EPS:
- Our Educational Psychologists
- Support provided by Educational Psychologists
- Accessing the service
- Before Educational Psychology involvement
- Educational Psychology involvement
- Evaluations of service delivery
- Educational Psychology resources
Our Educational Psychologists
Educational Psychologists (EPs) are psychologists who specialise in reducing barriers to learning, promoting emotional well-being and applying knowledge of child development. EPs work directly or indirectly with children and young people. EPs empower and provide advice to parents, carers and other adults who teach and support children and young people.
Our EPs are registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) and professionally qualified.
Through the application of psychological knowledge and skills, the service helps children and young people (from birth to 25 years) overcome barriers to successful learning in order to help them reach their potential.
These barriers might arise from:
- learning needs
- social, emotional or mental health needs
- physical, medical or sensory needs
- communication and language needs
Support provided by Educational Psychologists
Our EPs work with children, young people, parents, carers and others, to gain a better understanding of your child’s strengths and difficulties through a consultation model of working.
This may include:
- meeting you and staff (EPS Consultation)
- observing in the educational setting
- talking with the child or young person
- looking at their work
- using activities or tests
- attending meetings to review their progress
Our EPs are committed to promoting Children’s Rights: ‘Every child has rights, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status.’ UN Convention on the Rights the Child (UNICEF UK).
Accessing the service
The Educational Psychology Service allocates time to educational settings in York for consultation and problem solving. If you have concerns about your child, you should contact your child's teachers, tutor or Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) for a discussion as a first step towards possibly involving the EP service.
All schools and settings are required to initially follow a graduated response to meeting your child’s needs, before consideration of specialist support from the Educational Psychology Service.
Before Educational Psychology involvement
It's important that as parents/carers:
- your child’s school or setting have followed an ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle of support - please discuss what this might look like with your child’s SENCO or teacher
- you've received detailed information from school about your child’s progress
- you've been given the opportunity to discuss the role the EP might take
- you've given your permission for the EP to become involved, if not, further advice should initially be sought from school
Educational Psychology involvement
The Educational Psychology Service offers EPS Consultation to schools and settings.
For many children and young people this will facilitate problem-solving to help the SENCO to consider strategies and approaches that will support the child or young person; it may lead to staff training or person-centred planning as part of an SEN Support Plan.
See more information about the EPS Consultation process.
For children and young people with complex needs, who are undergoing an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA), an EP will undertake a statutory assessment of their needs. This will involve:
- talking to parents/carers
- visiting the school to offer consultation
- gathering the views of the child/young person
The assessment may also include carrying out an observation and/or direct assessment work at an individual level.
As part of the EHCNA the Local Authority will ask relevant professionals to offer ‘advice’, including the Educational Psychology Service; this is usually in the form of a written report.
The Educational Psychology Service also offers a monthly telephone support line which operates on Wednesday mornings during term time. Parents/carers (who have no current involvement with an EP), as well as local professionals, are offered a 30-minute one-off consultation to share concerns and discuss potential strategies to support children and young people with their learning and wellbeing within the home environment.
Appointments can be booked via email: epsupportline@york.gov.uk.
Evaluations of service delivery
Service delivery surveys are conducted every 2 years and we'll publish the results on this page:
- summary of feedback from our survey to schools/settings (2024)
- Parent Carer survey summary report June 2023
- Support Line Evaluation Report 2023