Summ
S
mary of th
he follow-tthrough ev
valua
ation
of
o the
e edu
ucatio
onal p
psych
holog
gy se rvice
e
Comh
C
hairle
e nan
n Eilea
an Siiar
2 July
y 201
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Tra
ansforming
g lives thro
ough learning
Conten
nts
Pagee
1.
Th
he inspection
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2.
Co
ontinuous improvem
ment
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3.
Im
mpact on stakeholde
ers
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4.
Ma
anagemen
nt of the se
ervice
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5.
Le
eadership of the serrvice
3
6.
onclusion
Co
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How can you co
ontact us?
?
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1. The inspection
HM Inspectors of Education published a report on the inspection of Comhairle nan
Eilean Siar Educational Psychology Service (EPS) in February 2009. Interim reports
on the service’s progress were published by HM Inspectors of Education in
March 2010 and July 2011 and by Education Scotland in July 2012.
HM Inspectors revisited the service in May 2013 to assess the extent to which the
EPS was continuing to improve the quality of its work, and in particular to evaluate
the progress it had made in improving the psychological service provided to children
and families living outwith Lewis and Harris.
2. Continuous improvement
The EPS continues to deliver high quality educational psychology. A maingrade
educational psychologist joined the service in July 2012, bringing the staffing up to
two full-time equivalents. As a result, there is now a fair and equitable service
across the Education Authority (EA). Families, schools and learning communities
throughout the Comhairle area now have high levels of confidence in the
accessibility and responsiveness of the EPS.
The training function of the EPS has developed rapidly in response to identified
needs. This has enabled the EPS to support teaching and non-teaching staff to
deliver high quality support and intervention to children and families. Examples
include training provided by the service on precision teaching and Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The research aspect of educational psychologists’ work is developing very well. This
important development is already making a positive impact on learning and teaching
in a range of schools and stages. For example the EPSs high quality leadership and
support of probationer teachers’ research projects is helping to increase teachers’
skills and pupils’ motivation.
Features of good practice:
The service has provided high quality training in relation to precision teaching. This
has helped teachers to develop new skills which are having a positive impact on
learning and teaching for English and Gaelic medium learners.
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3. Impact on stakeholders
Children and parents/carers report very positively on their experiences of working
with educational psychologists. Children report that EPS intervention is helping them
to better understand their difficulties and is improving their school experience.
Parents feel that they have been helped to become more involved in their child’s
learning and are able to contribute more effectively to their children’s intervention
plans. Schools recognise the high quality of the psychological service which they
receive. They feel that educational psychologists are having a positive impact on
their work with children and young people. The strong evidence-based approach
taken by educational psychologists is helping schools to develop further their
approaches to teaching and learning. Partners are very positive about the support
and advice provided by the EPS. They recognise the added value of having a
psychological perspective in helping to clarify needs and to bring a solution focused
approach to multi-agency meetings. Other agencies report positive benefits in
having an educational perspective to translate, for example, medical explanations
into practical classroom strategies. Educational psychologists are supporting
teaching and non-teaching staff to extend their skills to meet the needs of different
groups of learners more effectively. For example, training to develop staff
understanding of attachment disorders and ADHD is helping schools to develop their
strategies and ensure the most appropriate form of support. The service’s impact on
the wider community includes joint policy working with health colleagues to provide
multi-agency guidance on the identification and assessment of children and young
people with developmental disorders. The EPS should continue to embed the
delivery of its core functions to ensure sustained and continued impact for
stakeholders.
4. Management of the service
The EPS has developed a number of clearly-written policies which set out how it can
work most effectively with others to improve outcomes for children and families.
Examples include the Psychological Services interagency referral form and guidance
which helps to explain its role to stakeholders. A helpful document outlining the
agreed assessment process within the Comhairle area takes appropriate account of
the staged intervention process and links well to the Getting It Right for Every
Child national practice model. The service has made valuable evidence-based input
to important multi-agency policies, for example in relation to the management of
suicidal and self-harming young people and the education of looked after children
and young people. The service pro-actively encourages and enables the
participation of stakeholders in its improvement agenda. It routinely consults with
others when developing new policies and implementing initiatives and psychologists
strive to ensure that management decisions are linked closely to the needs of local
communities. The EA and the EPS have appropriate arrangements in place for the
EPS to develop and implement an improvement plan based on self-evaluation and to
report progress quarterly. The service should ensure that the plan is outcome
focused and emphasises the explicit links between the psychology it delivers and
Curriculum for Excellence.
The service recognises the need to continue to build on important developments
which have taken place in relation to self-evaluation. In particular it should
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implement fully its self-evaluation calendar and continue to refine its data recording
to ensure that it gathers the appropriate management information to inform
improvement planning.
5. Leadership of the service
The EPS is successfully developing creative psychological approaches which are
impacting positively on learning and teaching and on the wellbeing of children and
young people. It is making good progress in sharing practice within the EA and
beyond. Psychologists demonstrate very effective partnership work at a strategic
level. Both educational psychologists are skilful leaders of tasks and people and
they are successfully shaping others’ expectations of the service and its potential for
development. The Principal Educational Psychologist has led the EPS well to
ensure that the additional staffing resource has resulted in a more equitable service
across the EA. In a relatively short time, the addition of the maingrade educational
psychologist has made a significant positive impact on a wide range of stakeholders.
There is a need for the service to link its vision explicitly to the aims and values of
the EA and to articulate this vision clearly to stakeholders to ensure a shared
understanding.
6. Conclusion
The EPS continues to deliver evidence-based educational psychology of a very high
standard. The addition of a maingrade educational psychologist in July 2012 has
resulted in a fair and equitable service across the EA and the availability of a wider
range of high quality services. There has been a notable increase in the service’s
capacity to develop and deliver the training and research aspects of its work. This is
helping it to improve others’ practice and enhance learners’ experiences. Given the
positive impact of the improvements which the service has been able to
demonstrate, we are confident that, with the support of the EA, the EPS has the
capacity to continuously improve the quality of its work with an emphasis on better
outcomes for children and families.
We will make no further visits to the EPS in connection with the inspection of 2009.
The EA will report to stakeholders on the progress of the service as part of its routine
arrangements for reporting on the standards and quality of its work. The findings
from this follow-through visit will be shared with the Local Area Network as part of
the Shared Risk Assessment process.
Clare Lamont
HM Inspector
2 July 2013
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If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an electronic copy of
this report, please go to www.educationscotland.gov.uk
This report has been produced as a web-only publication and is available on our
website at www.educationscotland.gov.uk
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
us by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail:
complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us, addressing your letter to
The Complaints Manager, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Livingston,
EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600236. This is a service for deaf users.
Please do not use this number for voice calls as the line will not connect you to a
member of staff.
Crown Copyright 2013.
Education Scotland
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