Kent Educational Psychology Service The purpose of the Kent Educational Psychology Service is to support the raising of standards of achievement and promote optimum educational opportunity and learning and development for all. The Service works to facilitate organisational change and to build capacity, in partnership with schools, their pupils and families, and other agencies. Support to those who are vulnerable, with additional educational needs or other barriers to their learning is prioritised through early intervention and the promotion of inclusive practice. The Service provides an applied psychological perspective to facilitate positive change. Mission Statement The Objectives of the Kent Psychology Service are: To support organisational change in the promotion of inclusive practice for all, in schools and their communities To support the raising of standards of achievements of all young people particularly those who are vulnerable, with Additional Educational Needs or other barriers to learning. To improve our accountability and communication with all relevant stakeholders. To promote capacity building in all educational settings, in particular in those schools causing concern and those with significant development needs. To provide support in dealing with crisis and/or critical incidents. The Kent Psychology Service works in support of optimum learning and developmental opportunity and the key outcomes for children as exemplified in 'Every Child Matters'. This is achieved through:- Facilitating and enabling the management of change in the community, including schools, settings, other organisations and services that support and enhance young people's learning and development. Working always according to ethical and psychological principles including supporting the right to equality of opportunity. Working in partnership with the young people, parents, the community and other agencies. The Objectives of the Kent Psychology Service are: To promote and support inclusion of all young people in their community. In particular, the service focuses on: Young people with Additional Educational Needs Children in Public Care Early Years and seeks to: Contribute to the raising of achievements of all young people particularly those with Additional Educational Needs. Improve efficiency, accountability and communication with all relevant stakeholders. Provide support in dealing with crisis and/or critical incidents. Provide support for schools causing concern and those with significant development needs. All the work of the service is aligned to Education Development Plan Objectives, and other statutory and local plans and targets in relation to meeting the needs of children and young people and to raising standards and supporting school improvement. This is underpinned by adherence to SEN Code of Practice directives, and includes our statutory responsibilities. However, our work embraces applications of psychology in all aspects of teaching and learning, and is not specific to Special Educational Need. All Educational Psychologists employed in Kent by the Local Education Authority are fully qualified, with a degree in Psychology (or equivalent, as recognised by the British Psychology Society (BPS)) with teaching experience and post-graduate qualification in Educational Psychology. Registration for Chartered status with the BPS is encouraged, as soon as the criteria for eligibility is achieved. Our practice aligns with the BPS Code of Conduct and the Quality Standards guidance published by the Division of Education and Child Psychology (DECP). The core business of the Psychology Service is to support the management of change in individuals and organisations, to achieve positive outcomes in all educational settings. This is achieved through the application of a countywide practice framework that incorporates a range of consultative processes accredited by the service and based on positive empirical evidence. Within this framework, activities are planned, implemented, reviewed and evaluated with appropriate key personnel as part of the consultative process. All activities are predicated on: - Timely support to schools in responding to the needs of young people, schools, and with regard to LEA priorities. Maximising service time and cost effectiveness. The promotion of school effectiveness. The meeting of statutory duties in relation to Special Educational Need. Requests for professional work that cannot be endorsed by the service framework, and/or compromise adherence to the BPS Code of Conduct cannot be undertaken. Work commissioned within the clusters will be expected to identify: - objectives and demonstrable outcomes anticipated the time to be allocated to the activity the mechanism for reporting, if necessary the means by which the work will be monitored and evaluated When this work involves a direct intervention with an individual child, written parental permission must be received, with the completion of a consent form. This is completed by school staff who are expected to meet with, and discuss the issue with the child's parent or carer, in order to minimise anxiety. The Prioritisation of Demands on the Service that have implications for time allocated to clusters includes: - 1. Statutory Responsibilities The service has a statutory responsibility to provide advice to the LEA about children who are undergoing statutory assessment. This work must always take priority with time taken from the clusters time allocation. 2. Critical Incident Support The Psychology Service is not an emergency service except in circumstances where a critical incident has occurred either in school or directly affecting a school. Detailed policy is contained within the service handbook and information is routinely published and circulated to schools. The nature of this service is such that it has to be provided immediately and we are always indebted to the schools for their understanding when appointments have to be rearranged at short notice as a consequence. Individual service co-ordinators have a particular responsibility for the co-ordination of support to a defined group of clusters. Time spent on such activities will be taken from the time allocated to clusters. However, the ongoing training programmes to schools will be a responsibility for the retained elements of the service. 3. Child Protection Issues In circumstances where our attendance at Child Protection Conferences is critical we should always endeavour to prioritise this activity. This may involve some rearrangement of appointments with the clusters. 4. SEN Tribunals Educational Psychologists are often asked to attend SEN Tribunals in an expert witness capacity. Knowledge and experience of the child in immediate educational context is of paramount importance and so such work will normally be regarded as a cluster responsibility. However, in the event of exceptional workload in this respect (i.e. more than two cases occurring simultaneously) support from the retained element of the service may be negotiated. 5. Evaluation, Monitoring and Service Standards The Service aims to meet the quality standards set down by the British Psychology Society. Monitoring and evaluation is a critical part of service delivery. Each piece of work will be 'logged' in a standard format and an evaluation of outcomes and impact will be recorded. In addition, annual evaluation questionnaires will be sent to school and parents. We also anticipate the development of pupil enquiry questionnaires in the immediate future. The Service will monitor its activities against the following customer service standards. We will: - Appropriately respect confidentiality with due regard for all relevant legislation and national guidance, e.g. Children Act 1989, Working Together 1999. Provide relevant information to all Service users. We aim to: - Provide initial responses to messages left by telephone within 2 working days. (Service staff spends a high proportion of time in schools so offices are not always staffed. Consequently not all telephone calls can be answered and answer-machines are used). Respond to all letters and e-mails within 4 working days. Provide initial responses to complaints within 7 days. When further investigations are required we will normally complete them within 28 days or advise at least why they will take longer. Complete 90% of statutory advice within 6 weeks. Provide feedback in the most appropriate form to clients within 15 working days of completion of a piece of work. A handbook is published annually outlining the policies and procedures of the Service. The Handbook is available from any member of the Psychology Service. The Service publishes an annual Business Plan with explicit targets and performance indicators. To support the process of continuous improvement the Psychology Service recognises that its resource is its staff. Consequently every member of the service undergoes an annual performance review leading to specific objectives and an individual Continuing Professional Development Plan. Support to staff in relation to performance management and supervision is a responsibility of Senior Psychologists and will be undertaken as a retained activity.