Summary of the follow-through
evaluation of the educational
psychology service
A report by HM Inspectors
Midlothian Council
23 April 2013
Page
1.
The inspection
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2.
Continuous improvement
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3.
Progress towards meeting the main points for action
2
4.
Conclusion
3
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1.
The inspection
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published a report on the inspection of
Midlothian Council Educational Psychology Services (EPS) in June 2010.
Some time after the inspection the service prepared an action plan indicating how
they would address the main points for action identified in the original HMIE
inspection.
An interim report on the service’s progress was published by HM Inspectors of
Education in September 2011.
HM Inspectors (HMI) revisited the service in February 2013 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.
During the inspection, HMI worked in partnership with the Education and Children’s
Services Division (ECS) and the EPS on a carefully-planned programme of activities.
These were designed to engage a range of stakeholders, deepen the service’s
knowledge of itself and to promote organisational learning.
2.
Continuous improvement
The initial inspection report identified concerns about the way the service was led
and managed and its links with ECS. The interim report published in
September 2011 indicated that progress with planning for improvement had been
limited since the original inspection.
Further changes to the leadership and management of the EPS have taken place
since the interim report. These include the appointment of a permanent Principal
Educational Psychologist (PEP) who took up post in January 2013. The line
management of the service is in the process of transferring from the Head of Service
(Children and Families) to the Head of Service (Education). The entire EPS team is
in the process of transferring from two locality bases to a central location within the
Council. This will increase the potential for the service to raise its profile and to
ensure consistency of practice.
The EPS has strengthened its approach to carrying out its core functions. It has
developed its portfolio of training programmes and works collaboratively with
partners to deliver well-targeted support to schools and others. Educational
psychology research is now used more frequently to inform decisions about
individual children. This helps to ensure that planned interventions are based on
appropriate evidence.
Partnership working by the EPS continues to improve. This helps to ensure that the
work of the EPS complements other professions to identify agreed actions to
improve the life chances of children and young people.
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The EPS is becoming more involved in the strategic planning and development of
ECS.
The service continues to be viewed more positively by stakeholders. Data from
self-evaluation activities is beginning to demonstrate high levels of satisfaction with
the EPS in terms of ease of access to psychologists and working relationships.
3.
Progress towards meeting the main points for action
The initial inspection report published in June 2010 identified three main points for
action (MPA). HMI confirm that the service has made further progress in addressing
the MPAs. It is too early to determine the impact of this progress on children and
families.
Link self-evaluation to planning for improvement through leadership at all
levels and partnership working with key stakeholders.
The EPS has strengthened its arrangements for gathering feedback from service
users. A Quality Improvement Framework Calendar is now in place and the recently
appointed PEP continues to refine and improve this. She has amended the calendar
to ensure that it includes, as a matter of routine, an evaluation of the quality of
casework being carried out by educational psychologists. A helpful Performance
Management Framework is now in place and is helping to support staff to deliver a
more consistent service. The PEP has improved the stakeholder reference group by
extending its membership to include parents. This helps to ensure that parents who
use the service now have the opportunity to influence its development. Educational
psychologists recognise that it is important for them to share with the PEP the
responsibility for improving the service. They are aware of the need to demonstrate
individual and collective leadership in their work. Doing so will strengthen teamwork
and help the service to realise its potential to contribute to better outcomes for
Midlothian’s children and families.
Develop the EPS policy framework to guide practice within and across locality
teams and ensure understanding of roles and responsibilities across
stakeholders.
The EPS has worked with partners to develop further its range of policies and
practice guidelines. Arrangements are now in place to review policy documents
annually to ensure that they reflect current developments within educational
psychology. This is supporting the service to improve the quality of its work. The
creation and review of practice guidelines is now more carefully monitored. The
Access and Delivery of Service policy guideline is helping to promote a more
consistent approach to service delivery. Data collected from schools indicates that
they are supportive of the service’s current approach. There is scope for the EPS to
develop and embed a coherent system to record the voice of the child and young
person to ensure that service delivery is targeted more effectively to meet their
needs.
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Collect and analyse service and authority data to measure trends over time to
demonstrate improvements in performance for children and young people.
There is now more evidence of data collection and analysis by the EPS and the
service has strengthened its link with the Performance and Planning Team. This is
helping it to identify the aspects of the Council’s strategic priorities where educational
psychologists can make the most difference. Examples include reducing the number
of school exclusions and raising levels of attendance. Arrangements have been
made to utilise the skills of the senior educational psychologist to develop strategies
to analyse service and authority data to demonstrate the impact of the EPS. There
is scope to build on the promising work which the PEP has established with
Associated Schools Group Managers to improve further the effectiveness of planning
for multi-agency interventions.
4.
Conclusion
The EPS has undergone further changes in personnel and line management since
the interim inspection report. A permanent PEP has recently been appointed to the
service and she articulates her vision for the service very clearly. She has quickly
gained the confidence of educational psychologists and ECS and has made early
improvements to the leadership and management of the service. She demonstrates
a determination to embed a culture of self-evaluation and continuous improvement.
With the continued support of ECS, the EPS has the potential to deliver educational
psychology of a high standard and make a significant contribution to the Council’s
agreed outcomes.
Overall, the impact of improvements made since the initial inspection is yet to be fully
realised. ECS and the EPS have been asked to prepare an action plan outlining the
steps they intend to take to accelerate and embed improvements in the performance
of the EPS. The link HMI and Area Lead Officer will maintain contact with ECS to
support improvement. We will carry out a further visit within one year to report on
progress with the MPAs and the extent to which improvements in the leadership and
management of the EPS have been developed. 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
23 April 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
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation, or if you wish to comment about any aspect of our
inspections. You can contact us at enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write
to us at Education Scotland, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park,
Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. 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.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.educationscotland.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2013
Education Scotland
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