Summary of the follow-through evaluation of the educational psychology service
A report by HM Inspectorate of Education The City of Edinburgh Council
15 February 2011

3. Progress towards meeting the main points for action
4. Conclusion
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1. The inspection
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published a report on the inspection of
The City of Edinburgh Council Educational Psychology Service (EPS) on
15 December 2009. Following the inspection, the service prepared an action plan indicating how they would address the main points for action identified in the original
HMIE inspection.
HM Inspectors revisited the service in November 2010 to assess the extent to which the EPS was continuing to improve the quality of its work, and to evaluate progress made in responding to the main points for action.
2. Continuous improvement
Since the initial inspection in 2009 there have been significant changes to the leadership team within the service. The principal educational psychologist (PEP) post and two of the four area principal posts are being filled temporarily on an acting basis. The two remaining area principal posts are filled by 1.7 permanent full-time equivalents. At the time of the initial inspection, the service complement was 36.3; this had been reduced to 31.65 at the time of the follow-through inspection.
The leadership team have made appropriate use of the findings of the HMIE inspection. They have drawn up a post inspection action plan to help the service take forward improvements in performance. Psychologists have started to place a stronger emphasis on improving the quality of their work and evaluating its impact on children and families.
The EPS has recently aligned its operational and strategic planning with the work cycle of the authority. It has now produced a Team Plan for 2010-2013 which takes account of Strategic Objectives and Children and Families Priorities. The service has produced its first Standards and Quality Report. This report provides feedback to stakeholders on the service’s achievements during session 2009-10 and shares its proposed areas for improvement in 2010-2011. A new and stronger vision for the service has recently been established and more effective partnerships with key stakeholders are helping the service develop a clearer direction.
Stronger arrangements for self-evaluation are now in place and a culture of professional challenge is emerging within the service. However, there is a need for the education authority to provide more focused support and challenge to the service to ensure that it is delivering best value.
The service has continued to play a lead role in supporting the Council’s integrated literacy strategy. Staff report on literacy and looked after children and promote the voice of the child in the implementation of Getting It Right For Every Child in
Edinburgh (GIRFECiE).
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Features of good practice:
• The service is working with children to co-present a paper on Solution Focused
Pupil Support Groups at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in
May 2011.
More detailed information is available from the PEP
3. Progress towards meeting the main points for action
The initial inspection report published in December 2009 identified four main points for action. We confirm that the service has made encouraging progress across the main points for action resulting in improved management of the service. It is too early to confirm the impact of this progress on children and families.
Through leadership at all levels and in partnership with key stakeholders, develop a clear direction for the service.
Service managers have encouraged distributed leadership through ensuring that psychologists contribute fully to service development. For example, psychologists have been consulted on, and have contributed to, the vision statement, service priorities and the improvement planning process. Psychologists are also contributing to service groups set up to drive service developments. These include groups focusing on research and evaluation, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), early years, peer support, solution focused approaches and post-school psychological services.
The service has set up a stakeholder group which it uses effectively. The service also uses its re-developed end of year reviews to consult with schools, and feedback from these is helping to improve its policies and procedures. A service group, Pupil
Participation , has been established. This group is carrying out some constructive work to consult pupils about documentation and evaluation materials for children and young people.
Psychologists and other stakeholders have contributed to a helpful shared vision for the service. A carefully-worded vision statement now sets out the service’s aspirations and direction and articulates clear expectations for equality and social justice. It supports psychologists in their work at an operational level and confirms the service’s commitment to partnership working with other agencies. It is helpful in informing services users of the role of the service and of psychologists.
A team plan has further strengthened a shared sense of ownership and common purpose within the service. The plan clearly outlines the service’s intended contribution to achieving the capacities of Curriculum for Excellence , and the significant role it is playing in supporting GIRFECiE.
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Arrangements for the leadership of the service are currently uncertain as the majority of staff in the leadership team hold their posts in an acting capacity.
Plan for continuous improvement to allow the measure of performance over time.
The service is making significant progress in planning for continuous improvement.
Planning is now being carried out in collaboration with the education authority and is integrated with wider authority planning structures.
Psychologists now have a sound understanding of the planning process and how this relates to impact and outcomes for children and young people. They now also have a solid grasp of the nature of service planning and its implications for their work at the individual, establishment and organisational level.
The recently developed team plan reflects local and national priorities, with indicators, performance measures and work streams covering the range of work of the service. The team plan has been developed with the support of corporate planning services and has received validation from corporate planning personnel.
The plan will enable the measurement of performance over time. However, it should be improved in terms of brevity, clarity and precision.
The service needs to carry out further work to consolidate and integrate its planning systems and self-evaluation measures and should develop a quality management policy to guide its work in this area. In particular, it should consider using the national quality improvement framework and should review the structure and rigour of its standards and quality report.
Develop challenge within the service to improve consistency of practice.
Members of the EPS leadership team are taking steps to ensure that appropriate systems for challenge are in place. The service now has a more rigorous system in place for Professional Review and Development (PRD). This complies with council policy and is ensuring that staff have a formal PRD meeting at least twice a year.
PRD is offering professional challenge, tracking of individual progress, supporting individual self-evaluation and ensuring a strong link between individual CPD plans and the service’s improvement plan. A helpful case file evaluation system has also been put in place to evaluate the impact of individual casework. The service has taken important steps to ensure equity of provision across schools, through enabling schools to draw upon expertise from across the service.
Psychologists are welcoming the increased support and challenge from service managers. They find that it encourages consistency of practice and provides clearer standards and direction. The stakeholder consultation group is beginning to provide helpful and constructive challenge to the service to promote continuous improvement and drive up standards.
The service has received support and challenge from authority senior officers on its planning and standards and quality reporting. Although encouraging progress has
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been made, further action is required to ensure that the evaluative component of these processes is made more stringent.
The service’s line manager has provided the Education, Children and Families
Committee with a helpful report on the evaluation of The City of Edinburgh Council’s
EPS. A further report on the service’s progress is planned. Arrangements for reporting on the service’s performance should now be strengthened. This will allow it to give assurance that it is delivering best value and supporting the Council to achieve its key objectives.
Develop processes of self-evaluation with all staff to monitor performance and improve outcomes for children and young people.
The service has developed self-evaluation systems and processes with the aim of monitoring service performance and impact and outcomes for children and young people. Service managers recognise the need to develop further these systems and processes and to align them more closely with the national performance framework.
Self-evaluation processes at an individual psychologist and at a casework level are beginning to be effective in monitoring staff performance. A range of performance data and information is reviewed by the service leadership team and by the
Research and Service Evaluation Group . This includes information from the service user group, pupil participation group and stakeholder surveys. The service is beginning to use this information to guide the development of its processes and policies. The data gathered should now be used to demonstrate that self-evaluation processes are improving outcomes for children and young people.
Psychologists have a collective understanding of formal self-evaluation structures such as case-file evaluation and the PRD process and how these link to service planning. The service should now develop further its understanding and use of the term ‘self-evaluation’ to ensure that this is consistent with an outcome focused approach to improvement planning. In doing so, it will be helpful for the service to review the guidance contained in the national quality improvement framework.
There is a need for the service to build on its work on self-evaluation to improve outcomes for children and families. In doing so, it should consider putting in place a policy outlining how the process informs and guides service quality management.
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4. Conclusion
The Leadership Team within the service and officers from the education authority have improved aspects of the service to better meet the needs of children and families across the authority. The service now has a clearer sense of direction.
More remains to be done to ensure fully effective approaches to improvement planning, challenge and self-evaluation. We will carry out a further follow-through visit within one year of the publication of this report. We will report on the extent of the improvement that has been achieved.
Clare Lamont
HM Inspector
15 February 2011
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Crown Copyright 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education
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