“I talk to parents and they often feel unheard, they feel lonely, they feel trapped”

Educational psychologist and Chair of the BPS Division of Educational and Child Psychology, Dr Gavin Morgan has been raising the alarm for years over the state of the system which supports children with special educational needs and disabilities. Here, he explains why investment is needed for preventative services and the biggest challenges facing the educational psychology workforce.  

As someone who speaks to educational psychologists (EPs) every day, what are they saying are the biggest challenges that they're facing? 

The biggest challenge is not being able to really do what they want to do. EPs working in local authorities can't do the early intervention work that they're trained to do. That's one of the huge frustrations that we've got at the moment. 

EPs are great. They're highly skilled, highly trained professionals, that are very ethically driven. But I think the frustration for many local authority EPs is they're just not able to provide that early intervention support to stop problems and issues becoming deeply embedded, which is where we are now. The problems have become so entrenched. 

You were on the School Behaviour Secrets podcast recently and spoke about how having a linked EP used to exist and how it's a model that worked in the past. It was a really helpful way to understand why it's vital that all educational settings having a linked EP that's free to access.      

Some EPs are still working in that espoused model, but many local authorities haven't been able to, and that's why we've got a bit of a postcode lottery. In some areas of the country, they've still got a linked EP and it's still free at the point of delivery. But over the past 10 - 15 years, practise varies throughout the country and that's leading to some dissatisfaction in many EPs. 

One of the problems is the way that some schools have to buy in services. So, the kids that need support the most end up having their needs determined by a school budget. I think that throws up a whole host of other ethical questions. 

The reason that local authorities have done that is to plug a funding gap. Austerity hit 15 years ago and one answer to that was to begin trading services. A lot of services were cut, and a whole host of services for children with special needs were withdrawn.  

When you speak to the next generation of EPs through your tutor role at UCL - what are their thoughts about their future career? Are they excited and enthusiastic, even though they might be aware of the difficulties they might face in the future? 

Most of my working week is spent training EPs. We do a brilliant job of training them and giving them insights into so many different ways that psychology can be applied, and all the wonderful interventions that we can do. 

Also, the interest is phenomenal amongst psychology graduates wanting to become an educational psychologist. And I think that kind of enthusiasm doesn't dim throughout the training.  

They're brilliant to work with and they're enthusiastic. But I've spoken to a number of them once they do get into local authority practise and there's more bureaucratic administration rather than an interventionist role. So that disillusionment I think does hit some of them quite early on in their profession. And it's not good, and it's not healthy because, as I said they're brilliant and they want to make a difference. I think they feel frustrated that they're not able to do what they've been trained to do. 

What would your ideal educational psychology preventative and early intervention model look like? 

Get back to the to the point where each school had a named, linked educational psychologist. We can easily do this again, as it wasn't long ago that this service was free at the point of delivery. It enabled a psychologist to build those relationships where they would be part of the school community.  

They'd be working with teachers, the specialties co-ordinator, the SENCO. And I think the ideal way of working would be to have termly planning meetings with the school about children they're concerned with. The espoused model that we suggest is: assess, plan, do, review. You meet with the teacher, and you spend time in the classroom, observing and focus on the child and look at how that child interacts with the teacher and the lesson content. 

The psychologist gets to know the school, the people in the school, and meets parents as well. So, you're kind of triangulating all the different types of evidence that you've got - working with parents too, because how the home life is impacting on a child is important too. 

We're trying to see how all these factors interact on a child's presentation and then we begin working with teachers to plan out interventions. You're building those relationships, getting that understanding, and realising what works and doesn't work for a child. We're not able to do that if we're just being called in to do assessments because it's too late by that point and all we're doing is just having a one-off conversation with a teacher. 

It doesn't make a difference for the child because the problems become entrenched and we're not able to work with teachers and teaching staff to try to make a difference. It's too late by that point. 

We're in a position now that many educational psychologists and local authorities are just doing the statutory assessments for the education, health and care plans. And these problems are often intractable by that stage.  

What's the impact on children and families who are on a waitlist for an EP? 

It's just really frustrating and I think then parents get frustrated with the system. It doesn't help anybody. I talk to parents, and they often feel unheard, they feel lonely, they feel trapped, they feel isolated. They can see that their child is struggling, suffering and things are getting worse, and they're asking for support and help with it. 

It's not forthcoming, and the problem then rests with the school and with the teacher. Teachers are brilliant and schools do a fantastic job, but they need support. That's why we exist. 

You've been supporting the BPS campaign to get a linked educational psychologist in every school and undertaking a holistic review of the SEND system. In say, a year's time, what do you hope that the impacts of the campaign will be? 

We'll perhaps be doing more work in the early stages of a child's education because what we're finding is that we're picking up a lot of problems now in secondary schools. By intervening early when a child is younger, we can solve problems and stop the need for support later on. 

I think that would be the vision; more educational psychologists being trained, more education psychologists being employed and retained by local authorities and educational psychologists being able to do what they're trained to do and what they what they want to do.  

Find out more about our campaign to fight for children in the SEND system.