FAQs

Educational Psychologists (EPs) work within schools to help improve and enhance young people’s experiences of school. Through assessment, EPs identify problems that young people may be having within school.

These can include but are not limited to: difficulties with learning, language, social skills, emotional wellbeing, managing feelings and behaviour and friendships. Once the difficulties have been identified, EPs work with the adults who know the young person best (usually their school and close adults from home) to put in place support. EPs are skilled at intervention, therapeutic work and training where this is required.

Some EPs can also work with adults to support their wellbeing and relationships with young people through supervision, training and intervention. EPs can also be involved in lecturing, higher education courses and training/support of other professionals.

You can check my HCPC registration here: https://www.hcpc-uk.org It is always a good idea to check the registration and credentials of any professional that you hire to work with young people to ensure that they are accredited. For different professionals, the accrediting body will be different. Any professional that you commission work with should be happy to help you check their accreditation.

For a full list of services offered and fees please see here.

I work within Kent, primarily within the East but I can travel to the North, South and West of Kent. Some remote work may be available depending upon capacity

In my experience, schools who get the most value out of their EP time create a space for planning/consultation at the start of each term. This consultation space allows concerns to be shared and potential solutions to be discussed as for some young people their first step might not be an EP assessment. Having a consultation also allows the school SENCo and EP to identify whether there are any recurrent themes (for example: emotional literacy difficulties) which then enable them to think about the best and most valuable use of EP time (for the example above perhaps staff training, an ELSA course or supervision).
In addition to providing space for consultation, reflection and thinking, schools who see the biggest impact from their EP time are those who implement strategies, keep records of this and review regularly. Organisation is also important and inviting parents/carers in on time, providing the EP with a space to work and ensuring that the student(s) are ready to meet with the EP all help with working smoothly.

I am not currently available for tribunal work

The majority of my work takes place via school referrals however at times I may have capacity for some parental/carer assessments. Please do get in touch to check my availability for this work

For confidentiality and safeguarding reasons I do not currently offer work experience placements to students and do not take volunteers. If you are an aspiring Educational Psychologist I am happy to meet with you for a coffee and chat or can talk on the telephone about the work.

EPs meet with parents/carers to gather their views during an assessment. Parents/carers have a wealth of knowledge about the child and this will be your opportunity to share what you know about your child’s strengths, difficulties and any concerns you might have. The conversation will be friendly and open and there will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions. If there is any information you want to share with the EP prior to the assessment (such as previous reports) please feel free to bring this too.

When you meet with the EP they will introduce themselves and explain why they have been asked to work with you. They will also explain what is going to happen during the assessment and how it will go. During the assessment, the EP might use a range of tests or questionnaires to gather your views, strengths and skills. They might also do some drawing tasks, activities or games with you to help you share your thoughts and feelings. You can ask the EP any questions that you want to and if you need support from someone in school whilst you meet the EP, this is fine.