DECP Annual Conference 2023

Julian (Joe) Elliott is Principal of Collingwood College, and Professor of Educational Psychology, at Durham University. He has worked with, and studied the needs of, children with reading difficulties for more than 45 years, initially as a teacher of children with special educational needs in special school and mainstream settings. He subsequently practised as an educational psychologist in the North East before becoming a university lecturer in 1990. Joe is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (B.P.S.), and a Chartered Psychologist. He was a member of the Education Panel for the 2014 and 2021 UK Research Excellence Framework exercises. He is currently Associate Editor of the American Psychological Association's flagship theoretical journal, Psychological Review, was Associate Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and Learning and Individual Differences and was a long-time editorial board member of the DECP's journal, Educational and Child Psychology. Joe considers himself particularly honoured to receive the 2020 British Psychological Society/DECP Award for Outstanding Contribution to Educational Psychology. In his spare time he has served as an agony aunt on The Times, been interrogated about dyslexia on Loose Women, and featured as a question on pub quiz machines.

Abstract

The Dyslexia Debate

In this presentation I will consider the problematics of dyslexia diagnosis. Firstly, I will describe the different ways that dyslexia is understood and promoted in research, practitioner and lay circles and demonstrate the tensions and contradictions that emerge. I shall then explain why a process that is often portrayed as emancipatory has negative consequences for many young people. Finally, I shall call for a process of early identification, assessment and intervention that will be designed to serve all struggling readers.

Since April 2010, André has worked as the DfE SEN and Disability Professional Adviser, contributing to a range of policy developments, including the Children and Families Act. He is currently working on the 2022 SEND and Alternative Provision Review.

Between 1984 and 2004 André was an educational psychologist before working in the National Strategies.

SEND – A time for positive change

This presentation will provide an update on the proposals in the Green Paper, and the implementation plan arising. The potential for the EP profession to make an even greater difference to the outcomes for children and young people with SEND will be highlighted

Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou is an award-winning assistant professor based at the Department of Psychology and Human Development at University College London, the lead autism workforce trainer at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and an AT-AUTISM associate. She is the founder of the Group for Research in Relationships in Neurodiversity. Georgia is committed to creative participatory health and educational research that is co-produced and codelivered with community members. Georgia has been leading national and international mental health courses for practitioners who work in educational and NHS systems. Currently she is a coinvestigator in a large interdisciplinary MRC funded coproduced study on prevention of depression in neurodivergent young adolescents. Georgia is also editing a new book dedicated to collaborative practice and autistic mental health in clinical services.

Learning from autistic people and their family members: Re-writing the narrative

Bridgette Rickett is Reader and Head of Psychology at Leeds Beckett University where she is committed to socially just and inclusive leadership practice. In her research practice, Bridgette uses critical and feminist-informed qualitative methods to understand how discourses can shape our identities, relations, and experiences. With a focus on education, health and organisationally situated inequalities, particularly within the intersection of social class and gender, she has published multiple papers, book chapters and books and reports. These include the recent (2022) British Psychology Society (BPS) report on the 'Psychology of Social Class'. She is also a reviewer for several Journals, a past co-editor for Psychology of Sexualities, current elected vice chair of the 'International Society of Critical Health Psychology', past elected chair of the BPS 'Psychology of Women and Equalities' section, and is the founder and chair of POSCUPI, a collaboration between UK psychologists who examine the policy and practice implications for the psychology of social class.

Tackling social class-based inequalities - BPS 2022 campaign

Ingrid Schoon is Professor for Human Development and Social Policy at University College London, Social Research Institute. She is President elect of the European Association for the Study of Adolescence (EARA) and has been the President of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies. She is a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Social Science Centre (WZB) in Berlin. Her research focuses on the study of risk and resilience in the transition to adulthood, social inequalities in skill development, attainment and wellbeing. She has published widely, including over 200 peer reviewed papers; a monograph on 'Risk and Resilience' (2006); co-edited books on "Young People's Development and the Great Recession: Uncertain Transitions and Precarious Futures" (2017) with John Bynner; "Gender differences in aspirations and attainment: A longitudinal perspective" (2014) with Jacquelynne Eccles; "Transitions from School to Work: Globalisation, Individualisation, and Patterns of Diversity" (2009) with Rainer K. Silbereisen; all published by Cambridge University Press.

Supporting Care Leavers and their Families: An Intergenerational Perspective

In collaboration with Sam Parsons and Emla Fitzsimons

There is persistent evidence showing that individuals who spend time in out-of-home care (OHC) (which includes foster care and residential care) are at a higher risk of adverse psycho-social outcomes in later life. There is however less knowledge if this disadvantage transfers to the second generation. This presentation draws on evidence from nationally representative cohort data to examine the psycho-social adjustment of children of care leavers, i.e., adjustment in the second generation. Comparing experiences children of care leavers and the general population with no care experience across a number of outcomes, we are able to identify who is most at risk of psycho-social adjustment problems. The findings suggest intergenerational transmission of psycho-social disadvantage, although the findings point to both continuity and discontinuity of disadvantage. In particular, regarding educational outcomes we find that once inequalities in family socio-economic background or area deprivation and housing have been accounted for, children of care leavers perform at a comparable level to their peers. The findings raise important messages for policy, especially regarding early interventions, access to education for care leavers, and the area allocation and housing that is offered to care leavers.