Educational Psychology Service

The Southend-on-Sea City Council Educational Psychology Service:

  • promote the development of children and young people within the City
  • are committed to making an inclusive education system and society
  • offer advice and training on how settings and parent carers can help children and young people reach their goals

We work with:

  • education staff on ways of working with children as individuals and in groups
  • children and young people aged 0 to 25
  • head teachers, inspectors, advisory teachers and education officers to develop approaches to teaching and learning
  • educational settings. We give guidance on managing whole school issues. Examples: reducing bullying, improving playground culture and teaching children to read
  • individual children and/or their parent carers
  • professionals from health, social services and voluntary organisations
  • early years providers
  • colleges

We support and challenge educational settings and agencies to get good outcomes for children and young people. We know the importance of working with staff to:

  • offer training
  • raise awareness
  • support the development of knowledge and resources in educational settings

We are ethically and legally bound by professional practice guidelines. We abide by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards of proficiency for practitioner psychologists.

Our standards of conduct, performance and ethics include:

  • to get informed consent
  • to act in the best interest of service users
  • to respect the confidentiality of service users
  • to keep high standards of professional conduct.

Aims and Objectives

We aim to

  • match the capacity of the service with the priorities of educational settings and the Local Authority
  • promote children and young people's social, emotional, and academic development. We work collaboratively with the individual, groups, family, staff within the educational setting and other teams and agencies in preventative ways
  • offer support that makes a difference for children and young people, settings and families. This is based on evidence and experience of what works

Objectives

  1. to support inclusive practice and challenge discrimination
  2. to promote individual development and learning
  3. to promote and support organisational learning and change
  4. to promote and support emotional health and well-being

We work within a 'consultation framework'. This emphasises collaboration among psychologists, school staff, parent carers, children and others to:

  • help think through issues
  • clarify the current situation
  • use solution - focused approaches to agree ways forward

Services available

  • consultation with staff in educational settings, children and young people, parent carers and other professionals
  • research and development work to promote inclusion and support school improvement
  • awareness raising and training for professionals and voluntary groups about using psychology in education
  • direct work with individuals and groups of children and young people
  • advice and support in response to critical incidents / sad events in the community
  • advice and support for strategic planning and policy development within the Locality and city wide

Contact the team

01702 215909 during office hours

Email EPAdmin@southend.gov.uk

The admin team will contact the appropriate psychologist to answer any questions.