Hello and welcome to this short webinar which aims to answer the question of ‘What is an Educational Psychologist?’ My name is Megan Bird, and I am an Educational Psychologist working for Oxfordshire County council. This webinar is designed to give you a short introduction to what the role of an educational psychologist includes and what it can look like. Further information about the role can be found on the link at the end of this webinar.
It is important to initially think about what an Educational Psychologist does in their role…
They work with CYP aged 0-25 years across a range of settings including nurseries, schools, colleges and specialist provisions.
They identify and support a range of SEND including- learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, social communication challenges and other areas of disability.
They regularly liaise and collaborate with other professionals in education, health and social services.
They apply psychology in order to promote well-being, pathways to independence, and meaningful change and achievement for all.
Importantly, Educational Psychologists working in this local authority do not diagnose special educational needs. Instead, they aim to consider the environmental, cultural and individual factors which interact to influence a young person and evaluate and address opportunities for support.
Educational psychologist’s work in a way which holds several key principles at the centre of their work. These include:
Working ethically to promote inclusion, equality and diversity.
Promoting the voice of CYP and their families, ensuring they are at the centre of our practice.
Working in a supportive and respectful way in order to collaborate with those around them.
Promoting well-being in their application of psychology.
These values guide an Educational Psychologist’s work and ensure that their interactions with key individuals is supportive and helpful.
Many children and young people will experience difficulties at some point during their education and may benefit from help with learning, social interaction, communication, emotional well-being and behaviour, physical or sensory skills. Most of these children will be receiving support through School SEND Support and/or provision outlined in the local offer.
Where concern persists despite appropriate learning opportunities and intervention, Educational Psychologists (EPs) bring a psychological perspective to problem solving and improving learning and well-being.
As part of the Local Authority, the Educational Psychology Service also has responsibility for:
Statutory duties which we will refer to later in the presentation.
Vulnerable children and young people including those who are a Child We Care For, following the Local Authority guidelines.
Safeguarding.
Responding to critical incidents.
To support these areas the educational psychology service may work at across three different levels; the universal, targeted and specialist level. We talk through some examples of the work which can be done at each of the levels in the next few slides.
Across all 3 levels the educational psychology service has two strands to our work with early years settings, schools and post-16 settings:
Firstly, there is the provision of statutory advice to the local authority for Educational Health and Care Needs Assessments.
Secondly, there is traded work, which is work agreed directly with individual schools or through our universal offer.
In both areas of work, we work with settings to support children and young people who may be experiencing difficulties with learning, social interaction, communication, emotional well-being and behaviour, physical or sensory skills.
At the universal level educational psychologists have a responsibility for safeguarding all children who are vulnerable within education including children and young people the local authority cares for.
The Educational Psychology Service promotes the well-being and learning of children and young people. We work with children, parents, teachers, schools and settings to improve outcomes for children and young people so that they make progress, enjoy their time in education and are prepared for adulthood. We work with settings to support children and young people who may be experiencing difficulties in learning, social interaction, communication, emotional well-being, physical or sensory skills. This support can be accessed at a universal level through a range of different offers.
These includes but is not limited to:
SENDco Supervision
Training and supervision for ELSAs and Nurture group practitioners
Postvention training
Critical incident support
Oxfordshire Relational Schools Project
Guidance and handbooks to support schools, for example with transitions
One way you may work with an Educational Psychologist is through early support in schools. Schools can seek involvement from the Educational Psychology service in the form of traded work. In this type of work, advice and support is available at an individual, group or class, and strategic, systems and organisational level.
The service uses a Joint Problem-Solving model (JPS). Joint problem solving is a collaborative way for EPs to work with families, schools and professionals, to help think through the issue, clarify the problem and then develop next steps. The aim is to work together, drawing on everyone’s unique understanding of the situation in order to jointly develop solutions.
As part of the JPS model there will always be a joint problem-solving meeting with the person raising the concern and, as appropriate, key people in a position to contribute to the discussion. Through Joint Problem Solving, EPs work at different levels, their work may include the following:
At an individual level:
Classroom/playground observations
Direct work with individual pupils
Supporting the setting up of interventions for a child
Contributions to multi-agency meetings about children and young people as appropriate
At this level in particular, consent must be sought from the parent/carer of the child or young person for an Educational Psychologist to be involved.
At a group or class level:
Psychological interventions aimed at developing particular skills of small groups of children (e.g. social skills, thinking skills)
Providing support, advice/training for staff on a particular issue, e.g. executive functioning, understanding anxiety, emotionally based school avoidance.
Providing parent workshops
Providing supervision to staff
Working with teachers to introduce different approaches, e.g. precision teaching to a class or whole school
Supporting the implementation of emotional wellbeing initiatives, e.g. Zones of Regulation, or building resilience
At a strategic, systems or organisational level
Supporting schools with:
Developing new school policies and procedures
Whole school training
Project work, e.g. promoting staff well-being
Nurture groups
ELSA
Another way you may work with an Educational Psychologist at the individual or specialist level is through an application for an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). As part of this process an Educational Psychologist may conduct a needs assessment of the child or young person, which can include a range of activities such as:
Observing the child in class
Discussion with teacher/SENCO
Meeting with parents/carers
Individual assessment of children and young people
Writing a report and recommendations
An AEP is a psychology graduate who is employed, usually within a local authority, to assist the work of an Educational Psychologist (EP) and Educational Psychology Services whilst gaining relevant experience, prior to applying for a place on the Doctorate EP training course.
Assistants can help to support schools, parents, and students on an ongoing basis in a variety of ways such as:
Direct intervention work with students.
Wider project work.
Empowering teachers, students, and families.
Delivering training workshops to schools and families.
Wider research work where necessary.
Assistant EPs are regularly supervised by a qualified EP and help to expand the range of support services we can provide across all schools.
Thank you for listening to this presentation on ‘What is an Educational Psychologist?’ If you would like to find out more information about the Educational Psychology Service in Oxfordshire, then please visit our website on the link provided.
This was presentation was produced and presented by the following people in 2025:
Megan Bird (Educational Psychologist)
Megan VonSpreckelsen (Educational Psychologist)
Bethany Fannon (Assistant Educational Psychologist)
Thank you again for listening.
