Validated
self-evaluation
Midlothian Council Educational
Psychology Services
April 2015
Contents
Page
1.
What is validated self-evaluation in Educational Psychology
Services?
1
2.
What was validated self-evaluation in Midlothian Educational
Psychology Service?
1
3.
What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation
in Midlothian Council Educational Psychology Service?
2
4.
What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
2
5.
What is Midlothian Educational Psychology Service’s capacity for
improvement?
3
1. What is validated self-evaluation in Educational Psychology Services?
Validated self-evaluation (VSE) is an evaluative activity which supports and challenges
the work of Educational Psychology Services (EPS) by working collaboratively. It
involves a partnership between the Education Authority, EPS and HM Inspectors,
Education Scotland. In EPS the VSE focuses on two key themes.


Learning and Teaching.
Partnership Working.
The themes reflect the Scottish Government’s national priorities and relate to the
contributions made by EPS to raising attainment, addressing disadvantage and
supporting and implementing, Getting it Right For Every Child. Both themes also allow
EPS to evidence the impact and outcomes of early intervention and prevention across
the full range of their service delivery.
In addition to the core themes, services can choose an additional one to reflect their
own context. An additional area may relate to the core themes or reflect other quality
indicators which impact on the service’s ability to improve outcomes for its
stakeholders. For example, leadership, or the delivery of the five Currie (2002)
functions of consultation and advice, assessment, intervention, professional
development and research and development.
2. What was validated self-evaluation in Midlothian Educational Psychology
Service?
HM Inspectors and Midlothian Council EPS and partners took a closer look at the
following areas within each of the two themes.


The impact and outcomes on learners of the application of John Hattie’s visible
learning research.
The impact for children and young people of the EPS partnership approach to
career long professional learning and research.
In addition to the above two areas, the service considered the impact of leadership as it
relates to learning and teaching and partnership working.
The VSE involved HM Inspectors working alongside the themed groups. Each group
was chaired by an educational psychologist and comprised of partners such as quality
improvement officers, headteachers, and specialist support staff. The two themed
groups organised a time table of evaluative activities such as focus groups,
observations of training, and interviews with key stakeholders, to help triangulate their
self-evaluation evidence. Through such joint evaluative activity, HM Inspectors were
able to assess the rigour of the EPS’s self-evaluation processes and the robustness of
the evidence used to evaluate performance and service delivery.
1
3. What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation in
Midlothian Council Educational Psychology Service?
HM Inspectors found that senior managers, staff and educational psychologists had a
strong commitment to using self-evaluation to secure continuous improvement in the
EPS. The Principal Educational Psychologist ensured that the process was both
rigorous and transparent by directing all members of the themed groups to deploy
similar approaches to asking questions, reporting and reflecting on the outcomes from
their self-evaluation activities. This approach also ensured consistency across the
two themes and provided a supportive framework for the team members.
HM Inspectors recognised that as staff became more confident, the activities required
less prescription and direction. To build on the growing expertise and confidence of
staff, HM Inspectors encouraged them to engage in more high quality professional
dialogue and to challenge and interrogate more fully the evidence provided from
stakeholders, focus groups and observations of practice. Such engagement enabled
the service to identify their next steps for improvement more robustly.
HM Inspectors found the service’s approach to self-evaluation to be professional,
enquiring and accurate. The teams had identified suitable areas to investigate which
included an appropriate blend of good practice and areas for further improvement.
HM Inspectors noted that a good range and quality of self-evaluation evidence was
gathered as a result of on-going staff reflection, review and further analysis during the
VSE. The themed groups’ high-quality reflective dialogue and the systematic recording
of the outcomes from such discussion on an ongoing basis, was highly effective in
improving the quality of their self-evaluation and capacity to triangulate evidence. As a
result, HM Inspectors were confident that the service had very effective processes for
self-evaluation to bring about continuous improvement.
At the end of the VSE, the EPS identified a number of key strengths across the
two themes. These can be found on the EPS’ website (www.midlothian.gov.uk/eps)
4. What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
As a result of the work undertaken during the VSE, Midlothian Council EPS identified
the following priorities for improvement.
The service will build upon its successes in embedding visible learning across the
education authority and in doing so it will take account of the need to:



evaluate the impact and outcomes on learning and teaching using an appropriate
research methodology and tools;
continue to build on good work with school and partner agencies to engage parents
in the visible learning journey; and
make explicit the links between visible learning and relevant aspects of Curriculum
for Excellence, to build on teachers’ prior learning and ensure that the methodology
is fully embedded in the experiences and outcomes for all learners.
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In relation to strengthening partnership working the service identified the need to:


continue to challenge and change perceptions and expectations of the EPS in the
secondary sector; and
ensure that learning shared with partners is embedded and demonstrated in
practice.
An additional theme related to leadership emerged during the VSE and as a result the
service identified the need to:

continue to support the development of individual Educational Psychologists’
leadership skills so that all Educational Psychologists demonstrate leadership in all
areas of their practice.
In relation to the EPS’s self-evaluation processes the service will:


ensure that it gathers more specific impact and outcome data related to service
delivery and use this to triangulate evidence better; and
utilise the experience of staff engaged in the VSE to share their strong, reflective
approach to evaluating their own and others’ strengths and areas for improvement,
thereby strengthening the service’s self-evaluation processes further.
5. What is Midlothian Educational Psychology Service’s capacity for
improvement?
HM Inspectors are confident that Midlothian Council EPS has a strong capacity for
continuous improvement. The strong leadership of the Principal Educational
Psychologist and Head of Education has impacted positively on the quality of the
service delivered to children, young people and their families. In particular, the use of
evidence based practice has strengthened and added value to the contribution made by
the EPS to improving outcomes.
Laura Ann Currie
HM Inspector
17 April 2015
Further information about the EPS VSE reports and self-evaluation can be found on the
service’s website www.midlothian.gov.uk/eps.
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Education Scotland
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Livingston EH54 6GA
T +44 (0)141 282 5000
E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk
www.educationscotland.gov.uk