Services Brochure • 2015-2017
Special Educational
Needs Service (SENS) –
Educational Psychology
Service
Why this Service is important
Educational psychologists (EPs) apply their
knowledge and understanding of psychological
theory and research to promote the learning,
social and behavioural development, and
emotional wellbeing of all children and young
people and the effectiveness and emotional
wellbeing of the adults who care for and work
with those children and young people. EPs’
support can help all pupils, and particularly
those with special educational needs, to achieve
more and develop good psychological health.
The work of EPs promotes inclusion and good
relationships with parents/carers and other
professionals. EPs also help the development
of school staff knowledge and understanding,
and their capacity for reflective practice, thus
improving the quality of teaching and pupil
support.
Core Service Provided
Educational psychologists use their core time to
ensure that the local authority meets its statutory
duties and responsibilities in relation to all its
most vulnerable children and young people.
Luton maintained schools will receive the
following services free at the point of delivery:
¡¡Preparation of psychological advice in
accordance with the Children and Families
Act (2014) for children undergoing statutory
assessment of their special educational needs.
¡¡Reports for and/or attendance at annual
reviews of pupils with statements of special
educational needs or education, health and
care (EHC) plans where there are specific
serious concerns, for example a potentially
difficult transition to secondary school or
worry that the school is not able to meet the
pupil’s needs, or where change of provision or
placement is being requested.
described above.
¡¡Liaison with parents/carers of pupils
undergoing statutory assessment or
with statements or EHC plans under the
circumstances described above.
¡¡Assessment and advice for pupils with highly
complex needs, who do not have a statement
or EHC plan, who have recently arrived in
a school and/or show a rapid increase in
challenging behaviour as a result of traumatic
circumstances; these will be pupils who
are very likely to go forward to a statutory
assessment of their needs.
Academies, free schools, independent
schools and other local authority maintained
schools, will receive the following services
free at the point of delivery:
¡¡Preparation of psychological advice in
accordance with the Children and Families
Act (2014) for pupils undergoing statutory
assessment of their special educational needs.
¡¡Reports for and/or attendance at annual
reviews of pupils with statements of special
educational needs or education, health and
care (EHC) plans where there are specific
serious concerns, for example a potentially
difficult transition to secondary school or
worry that the school is not able to meet the
pupil’s needs, or where change of provision or
placement is being requested.
¡¡Consultation and advice for school staff on
pupils with statements of special educational
needs or EHC plans under the circumstances
described above.
To qualify for the core service pupils must be
resident in Luton and their statements of special
educational needs or EHC plans maintained by
Luton.
¡¡Consultation and advice for school staff on
pupils with statements of special educational
needs or EHC plans under the circumstances
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Services Brochure • 2015-2017
Details of Service
All schools may purchase as much additional
time as they wish. How this time is used
is negotiated with the school’s educational
psychologist (EP) and will reflect the individual
needs of pupils and schools. Schools are
charged for the time EPs spend doing on-site
visits. The cost generally includes all preparation
for visits, written feedback, telephone calls and
other administration tasks. However if a school
requests work where associated off-site tasks
will take longer than usual, for example, a
lengthy written feedback or regular telephone
consultations, this may incur additional cost. This
will be negotiated with the EP.
Services provided by the Educational
Psychology Service include:
¡¡Work with individual pupils with complex
needs and their parents/carers, including
consultation, assessment, advice and
intervention (e.g. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
(CBT), play therapy, work with parents).
¡¡Work with groups of pupils (e.g. social skills,
anxiety, stress and anger management).
¡¡Work with staff groups (e.g. staff surgeries,
support for SENCos, NQTs, TAs, staff
supervision groups).
¡¡Training: EPs will develop training to meet
schools’ individual needs. Recently delivered
training sessions include topics such as
motivation, attachment and resilience,
bereavement and loss, cognitive development,
behaviour management, managing stress,
self-esteem, working with parents, bullying,
learning to read, advice on specific syndromes.
¡¡Work at the whole school level. EPs have
considerable training in research and
evaluation and can support schools with
change management, needs analysis and
evaluation of interventions and provision
and with developing and managing specific
projects.
¡¡School Liaison Meetings (SLMs) held with
other support services to act as a forum for
consultation and discussion and to plan work
to be done in the school.
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Obligations on the part of
the School/Academy or
Educational Establishment
To provide a member of staff, usually the
SENCo, to act as a key contact to support the
efficient delivery of services by the Educational
Psychology Service.
Quality Assurance Standards
¡¡All team members are registered as
educational psychologists by the Health and
Care Professions Council (HCPC).
¡¡Performance of all EPs is monitored by
regular supervision with a team manager,
following guidance by the HCPC and British
Psychological Society (BPS), and through
the Local Authority’s Personal Performance
Assessment Process.
¡¡Sampling of parent/carer views and those of
children and young people.
¡¡On-going and annual discussion with schools
evaluating work; feedback to schools.
¡¡Phone calls, e-mails and letters answered
promptly, within Council guidelines.
¡¡Monitoring of SLAs to ensure visits agreed are
delivered.
¡¡Schools to be informed of an EP’s absence as
soon as possible.
¡¡EPs will normally expect to complete written
feedback within four weeks. However in
complex cases this may take longer. The
expected timeframe will be negotiated with the
school contact.
Service Contact
Name: Harriet Martin
Telephone: 01582 548153
Email: harriet.martin@luton.gov.uk