WSCC Educational Psychology Service
About
Educational psychologists (EPs) help children to fulfil their potential in education, social and emotional development.
West Sussex County Council has a team of experienced EPs who work with young people in schools and other settings throughout West Sussex. They are experienced and registered with the Health & Care Professions Council.
EPs work directly with young people up to the age of 25, parents, carers, teachers and other agencies, we promote educational, social and emotional development so that young people can reach their full potential.
The Educational Psychology Service provides advice to the local authority to support assessments of children’s special educational needs and disability. We have a duty to provide psychological advice to the local authority as part of the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment process.
What we do
- We hold consultation sessions for parents, carers and schools to access support and advice. These can be accessed either by telephone or through school planning meetings. For telephone consultations, the Educational Psychology Service offers the opportunity for parents to book a 30-minute consultation slot with an EP to talk about their child. Key members of school staff can also be invited to the meeting if helpful (please talk to your school SENCO about this, for further details). The EP does not undertake any follow up work, assessments or ask others to do assessments solely as a result of the consultation and cannot answer questions relating to process queries regarding Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments.
- The Educational Psychology Service also supports Portage, a home teaching service for children with complex needs identified before they move into an educational setting.
- The Early Years Inclusion Service (EYIS) works under the umbrella of the Educational Psychology Service, working with children identified as having SEND within their early years’ settings and as an outcome of the SEND Under 5 process. We work alongside the setting staff to implement practical strategies and ideas to support the child in the setting; these strategies reflect the child’s individual style of learning. We will consider strategies already suggested by other early years services that we work closely with including Portage, and Speech and Language. The service will work with children due to start school in the next academic year. For any further information please contact EYIS@westsussex.gov.uk.
- We run Earlybird and Earlybird plus, a National Autistic Society accredited training programme for parents whose child has received a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder and is of pre-school age.
Age range
0-25
Wheelchair accessible
Yes
Free to use
Yes
Our users say
I valued being able to speak to someone who really understands and cares. The EP listened intently to my concerns, checking frequently that she understood, before giving me useful (and vital) strategies and avenues to follow to help my son. I feel I now have a plan of action of ways to support my son’s anxiety and neurodivergence which I can share with his school.'
'The EP was very approachable and skilled at getting the information she needed. She put both staff and us as parents at ease and facilitated the meeting to make it easy to be open and honest.'
'Understanding, nice atmosphere and a way of organizing the meeting that was clear and transparent for everyone. Thank you for a wonderful report in which everything was written and you noticed the smallest details. I appreciate it very much.'
'xxx was very informative and gave each of us a chance to voice our thoughts, concerns regarding xxx now and going forward. She was patient, didn’t rush anything throughout the process. Overall we are very happy with the whole process and outcome of what xxx requires going forward into Primary School.'