Councils rethink educational psychology provision

Essex and Manchester councils are among the first in the country planning to run their entire educational psychology services through arm's-length bodies, CYP Now has learned.

A spokeswoman for Essex Council said the new-look service would launch this September and be fully operational by April 2012.

Manchester Council was unable to comment on its plans, but a spokesman confirmed that proposals to set up the educational psychology service as a separate company have been officially signed off by the local authority's cabinet.

Meanwhile, a Department for Education (DfE) review into training arrangements for educational psychologists has signalled that increasing numbers of local authorities could follow the example of Essex and Manchester.

Draft proposals for a new system of training are expected in July, but government documents outlining the parameters of the review state that fewer educational psychologists will be directly employed by councils in future, with more services being commissioned by local authorities, clusters of schools and individual parents.

"Educational psychologists themselves are moving to a more varied pattern of employment - some with private sector providers of education services, and into private practice with the potential also to form social enterprises commissioned to run services, similar to those being developed under the pilots of social work practices," the document states.

Kate Fallon, general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists, confirmed that many local authorities are planning to change the way they deliver educational psychology provision.

"There are more and more councils setting up service level agreements with schools to buy in provision, particularly of course for academies," she said. "It's a mixed bag but people have even mooted the idea that the GP consortia might be interested in purchasing educational psychology services. That's something that we've got to keep an eye on."

Fallon said that the bulk of local authority cuts to educational psychology posts to date have been made through non-compulsory redundancies.

"I think we've probably lost a couple of hundred posts over the past 12 months, by not filling vacancies, or by putting people on voluntary redundancy," she said.

But she admitted that a number of local authorities are now consulting on new models of provision that are likely to lead to compulsory redundancies.

As a result, the association is taking guidance from a range of advisers, as to how the social enterprise or employee co-operative models could be used in the profession.

"If we have members who are going to be made redundant and still want to work in the public sector, we're looking at how that could work," she explained.

But she emphasised that her members overwhelmingly want to continue working in local authorities, with social enterprise and co-operative models a second choice.

"It's all about the principles of ensuring access for very vulnerable children," she said. "If you're in school and your school wants to consult an educational psychologist, then fine. But if you've been excluded or the school doesn't think your problem is important, then how do you get access?"

Dr Mike Hymans, head of educational psychology at Brent and former chair of the National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists, admitted that the social enterprise model "fits more comfortably with the principles of most educational psychologists" than the idea of working for a private company.

"It's about providing services for the community and not for profit-making per se," he said. "If educational psychology services are operating outside of the local authority, who is determining who has access? There is an equality issue about whether or not the most vulnerable and needy children and young people can and are accessing services and whether or not they have to pay for them."

KEY POINTS

• The vast majority of the 3,000 educational psychologists are employed by local authorities
• Just 200 are employed independently
• Essex and Manchester councils are set to run their educational psychology services as arm's-lengths bodies
• The Department for Education is reviewing training for educational psychologists, who currently have to undertake a three-year degree involving a two-year placement at a local authority