Questions you may have about the Educational Psychology Service

There are lots of reasons an EP might be asked to help. This might be if you find some lessons very difficult, or if you get cross and upset a lot, have difficulties getting on with others, or if there are lots of things worrying you.

EPs listen to what is going well and where you need some help. They try to help your teachers and the people you live with make things a bit better for you. It is helpful if they really understand everything that you are finding difficult about being in your school/setting, so they might want to talk to you and do some activities with you.   

If the EP does need to talk to you, they will want to hear about how things are for you, what you like and don’t like both at school/setting and more generally.

Depending on what you are finding difficult, they may want to read with you, or to ask you to try some activities and puzzles. The EP will also talk to adults who know you well at your school/setting, so that they can understand what you are finding hard.

They may talk to your parents or carers. If you are over 16 you can say whether you want the EP to talk to your parents or not. If you prefer not to meet with the EP, you don’t have to, just let us know. 

No, not always, however, they may have ways to help you by talking to the adults who know you best. 

The EP will then talk to your teachers about how to help you. They may write down the suggestions people have made, in an action plan.

Your school or college will give a copy of this report to your family. If you are over 16, the school/setting or college will usually share the report with you. The people working with you will then use the strategies to help you. 

Sometimes an EP will only see you once, we may attend reviews or sometimes have some further involvement. You may not see the EP again, as normally it takes a long time to do all the things on the action plan. You may not see them again at all, or it may be over a year before they come back.

The adults that you work with now will continue to work with you, and may speak to the EP about how you are getting on. The EP may not need to see you in person for a long time, if at all.

We see lots of different children and young people from very young children to adults up to age 25, depending on what help different people need.

You can tell the Educational Psychologist if you don’t think something is right. You could ask your teachers or parents/carers to ring us, or you could ring us directly. We all want to help you, and we want to make sure the information we have about you is correct. 

If you have any other questions that you would like to ask, please contact us using the details on the ‘contact us’ page.

If you feel that you would like an EP to see your child, you should talk to a member of school/setting staff.

When you talk to school/setting staff, they may decide to provide extra help in the school/setting, or ask an EP or a member of another team for some additional help.  It will usually be a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator who makes contact with us. 

An EP might see your child for lots of different reasons. These might include if they need some help with learning, communication, behaviour, or their emotional wellbeing. 

EPs work in lots of different ways.

The EP will talk to staff who know your child well in their school/setting, and they may watch a lesson, activity or playtime. They may want to talk to you as well. 

Sometimes, the EP might do some assessment work with your child, find out more about your child’s strengths and difficulties. Sometimes, a conversation about a situation is enough to help the people involved to identify how to improve it. This will help the EP understand what would be useful next steps for your child. 

Through working with the people who know your child best, the EP will help develop a plan of action. This plan may include things you can try at home, and things school/setting staff can try at school. There may be few things or a long list to help your child in lots of different areas.

The EP will not make a diagnosis, but will support the adults who know the young person best to make helpful changes.

There will be some form of written record of our visit. We will send this to your child’s school/setting, and we expect them to share and discuss this with you.

The people working with your child will then use the strategies to help them. Sometimes an EP will only see a child once, at other times we may attend reviews or have further involvement. If you agree to EP involvement, schools/settings can then ask us for support as and when it’s needed.

If a report is written, this will be sent to your child’s school/setting. We expect them to give you a copy and discuss the report with you.   

We will store your child’s information confidentially and in a secure way, in accordance with data compliance legislation.

When an Education Health and Care assessment is taking place, the EP may visit your child, and gather lots of information about them. They may watch them in lessons, talk to them, work with them, and talk to staff who know them well.

The EP will also want to talk to you as you will know your child best. They will want to know what your child is good at, what you are worried about, and what you want for your child. This will all be written in a longer report, which will be sent to the Local Authority, so that they understand your child’s needs.

The Local Authority will decide whether your child needs an Education Health and Care Plan. You will get a copy of the report when the Local Authority have made their decision. This may take several weeks.

Contact details for the EP will be on the report they have sent, or you can contact our office on 0115 8765829.