Validated
self-evaluation
South Lanarkshire Council’s Educational
Psychology Services
December 2015
Contents
Page
1.
What is validated self-evaluation in Educational Psychology
Services?
1
2.
What was validated self-evaluation in South Lanarkshire
Council’s Educational Psychology Service?
1
3.
What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation
in South Lanarkshire Council’s Council Educational Psychology
Service?
2
4.
What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
4
5.
What is South Lanarkshire Council’s Educational Psychology
Service’s capacity for improvement?
4
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 (GIRFEC). 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)1 functions of
consultation and advice, assessment, intervention, professional development and
research and development.
2. What was validated self-evaluation in South Lanarkshire Council’s
Educational Psychology Service?
South Lanarkshire Council Educational Psychology Service (SLCEPS) used the VSE to
build on their recent self-evaluation activities which looked closely at their current
service delivery. They identified a number of key strengths where the service
contributed significantly to South Lanarkshire’s Education Resource Plan. These areas
included the Give Us a Break programme, the Early Years Framework of Assessment
and Intervention for Attachment and Resilience (EY-FAIAR), the Early Years
Collaborative, LAAC/Corporate Parenting strategy, Beating Exam Stress Techniques,
supports for young people with social, emotional and behavioural needs and attachment
informed practice. The service also leads on the attachment strand of Getting it Right
for South Lanarkshire’s Children and Families: Children’s Services Plan. The service’s
integration into the Council and Education Resources Plan is well established, and their
contribution is evaluated very positively by a wide range of stakeholders. In addition to
the programmes identified above, the service also leads on the Literacy Strategy
Implementation Group and has some sector leading approaches to health and wellbeing
such as the EY-FAIAR, and Give Us a Break. Using their self-evaluation data SLCEPS
identified two key questions which they wanted to address in the themed areas of
partnership working and learning and teaching. These were:
1. How will our work with partners influence our future service delivery model?
1
Currie (2002), Review of Provision of Educational
Psychology Services in Scotland. Scottish Executive.
1
2. How can we enhance our role in reducing barriers and supporting vulnerable
learners?
Each of the two themed groups was assisted by a broad and appropriately
representative range of stakeholders, some of whom worked closely with the service
and others who were relatively distant from service activities and perspectives. This
meant that partners could give wide ranging critical input into the process. For example,
partners across the two themes included staff from Community and Enterprise
resources, headteachers, Quality Improvement Officers, senior managers from
Education Resources, two young people, a parent, social work managers, the Clinical
Director of Psychology Services, NHS Lanarkshire, and members from the voluntary
sector. In addition to the partners in the themed groups, each of the activities included
partners relevant to the activity. Each themed group was chaired by a promoted
member of SLCEPS and partners participated in one or more of the activities planned
during the VSE week. There were a total of 14 activities, seven for each theme,
organised over two days. Each activity was designed to answer a different outcome
based question. For example, in the learning and teaching theme, the health and
wellbeing focus group activity was designed to answer the question:

How effective is our contribution to the health and wellbeing agenda at the strategic
level?
3. What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation in South
Lanarkshire Council’s Educational Psychology Service?
SLCEPS provided Education Scotland with a helpful self-evaluation summary report
prior to the VSE. The report identified their strengths and areas for improvement across
a wide range of service delivery functions and with an appropriate focus on impact and
outcomes. It was evident from the presentations and the professional discussions
undertaken during the week, that SLCEPS had effective processes in place to inform
continuous improvement, and self-evaluation was built into almost all aspects of service
delivery. The Education Scotland team was joining the EPS at a stage in their
improvement journey which was well established with a clear focus for the VSE. The
preparation prior to the VSE fieldwork phase was comprehensive and articulated very
well with their self-evaluation. Each activity had a clear focus on outcomes with impact
questions designed to provide evidence of strengths and areas for improvement. All
members of the themed groups were provided with a very clear description of what the
activity was designed to find out, what the service already knew, and guidance about
the questions which facilitators might want to ask. This information would have been
strengthened further by referencing more of the self-evaluation data used to
substantiate strengths and areas for improvement. A few partners at the beginning of
the VSE were uncertain about their role in the self-evaluation process. However, the
additional evaluative paperwork provided by the service to group members promoted
greater clarity for them during the week. Participants in the focus groups were very
positive about the service and provided many supportive statements and examples of
good practice. For example, almost all felt that the quality of staff development
materials was of a very high standard, and that the advice regarding individual children
was very effective. SLCEPS colleagues had to work hard to get beyond the affirmative
statements to uncover areas for more robust discussion. By day two almost all theme
members who facilitated activities were able to deepen conversations to elicit impact
2
statements and areas for further consideration. Helpful comment was also made by
partners during the week about the contribution of SLCEPS to broadening thinking
about their own evaluation methods. For example, teaching staff noted that the VSE
activities provided them with more ideas about how they could use the same
methodology to gather more robust qualitative data as part of their own self-evaluation
process.
The quality of the reflection and discussion during the feedback sessions was very
good. EPS colleagues were able to accurately identify their strengths and next steps in
both themes. For example, the partnership group recognised their strengths in
supporting partners at the case work level with vulnerable children and young people,
but also identified the need to ensure greater consistency and coherence in this work
across the service. Partners across a wide range of multi-agency fora such as the Early
Years Multi-agency Team, critical incidents focus group, GIRFEC, and EY-FAIAR
provided very positive feedback about the impact of the EPS in supporting their work.
The service recognised that there was a need to ensure that they were able to continue
to deliver in areas where they offered significant added value, and at the same time
develop and support new initiatives. By the end of the VSE there was a growing
understanding of how they might reconfigure their planning, use of data, and service
delivery to help meet the challenge of competing demands for EPS input.
The learning and teaching group recognised their strengths in supporting skills
development in teaching staff and others to improve children’s tools for reading.
Managers of schools, nurseries and other services highly valued the materials and
training provided by EPS. They acknowledged the power and worth of applied
psychology which underpinned the materials and the value of the training in providing
staff with a consistent approach to working with children, young people and families,
both in the development of literacy and health and wellbeing. Partners were able to
offer impact statements to support this, for example, components of reciprocal reading
had been used beyond the support for learning department into other departments in a
secondary school. Further work in developing literacy skills across the broad general
education was identified as a next step. In the area of health and wellbeing the service
was highly commended for their work on attachment and emotional literacy. Their
practice and materials in attachment and resilience have been adopted beyond South
Lanarkshire and are considered by partners as sector leading.
The Education Scotland Team recognised the service’s significant strengths across
both themes in applying psychological research to underpin practice and in the
production of support materials such as Give us a Break, Getting ready to read, and
EY-FAIAR.
The service’s integrity and positive response to challenge from Education Scotland,
partners and each other, helped them to identify next steps with greater rigor, and to be
creative in how they might action their improvement areas. The quality of professional
dialogue and reflection was very good across the whole service with appropriate
challenge and critical appraisal strengthening throughout the week. A shared purpose
and vision also grew in strength as the week progressed with consensus around the key
areas for improvement. The VSE allowed the service to interrogate their evidence more
deeply, to triangulate their data and to build further on their strengths in self-evaluation.
3
4. What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
The service in partnership with Education Scotland identified a number of actions within
each of the themes which they plan to develop further. During the VSE there were
many strengths identified by the service, partners and Education Scotland. These can
be found on their website:
http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/info/200173/council_performance/1488/other_performance_informatio
n
Education Scotland and SLCEPS agreed on the following higher order areas for
improvement.



Continue to build capacity in others to deliver key outcomes and to release time for
the service to continue to innovate and create.
Consider the use of research methods to help the service develop further its
improvement planning and service delivery model.
Continue to develop an overarching self-evaluation framework applied consistently
across all service activities.
5. What is South Lanarkshire Council’s Educational Psychology Service’s
capacity for improvement?
Education Scotland is confident that SLCEPS has a strong capacity for continuous
improvement. The Principal Educational Psychologist has developed a robust culture of
distributive leadership which has led to many examples of innovative practice. The EPS
is very well incorporated into the Council and Education Resources planning processes
and it is clear where the EPS adds value to Council priorities. The service is well placed
to develop its service delivery further in new and creative ways in partnership with its
stakeholders.
Dr Laura-Ann Currie
HM Inspector
11 December 2015
Further information about the EPS VSE reports and self-evaluation can be found on the
service’s website
http://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/info/200173/council_performance/1488/other_performance_informatio
n
4
Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston EH54 6GA
T +44 (0)131 244 4330
E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk
www.educationscotland.gov.uk