Educational Psychology training is being eroded

Readers will already be aware of the challenges currently faced by Educational Psychologists (EPs). This was raised recently in the reporting of the BPS campaign (see Ella Rhodes' article in the November edition of The Psychologist).

After this encouraging coverage, I read the related (and recently published) BPS policy paper (Psychology Matters – Educational Psychology workforce in England survey findings and report) hopeful that it might provide a robust set of recommendations to help achieve stronger provision of Educational Psychology services.

Unfortunately, the points about training have not been translated into anything meaningful in the policy. While some of the recommendations, such as retaining EPs in Local Authority (LA) services and promoting equality of access to services, are undoubtedly vital priorities, the policy paper fails to make any mention of the need to maintain a robust training pathway and train sufficient numbers of EPs.

Barely 200 EPs are trained each year. An increase in 2020 started to filter through into the workforce in the 2023 cohort, yet this has not alleviated the pressures experienced by EPs who are dealing with the many rising challenges that LAs face. This is clearly demonstrated by the survey that supports the new policy document (also reported in the November article) with almost three-quarters of respondents saying that they don't have enough time to fulfil their role. 

With around 24,000 schools in England, the aspiration in the policy paper for an EP who can be a link and deliver a service for each school is more than ambitious, and arguably unachievable given the current training context. Recent research has suggested that for schools to access a level of service they judge to be 'good' LAs would need to more than double their workforce. (Hooper et al., 2024).

Compounding this there has been a disastrous attempt to re-distribute training places from southern regions of the country to the north. While an increase in the numbers of EPs trained in all parts of the UK is vital and services in northern regions undoubtedly need more training places, this short-sighted 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' approach has proven to be very damaging. It has led directly to the closure of the longest-running Educational Psychology training programme at UCL, with a 20 per cent reduction in training capacity across the South East and London.

The policy paper has missed an important opportunity to strengthen the foundations of professional training in Educational Psychology at a time when it is being significantly eroded.

Ben Hayes
Educational Psychologist
Kent

Reference

Hooper, T. et al. (2024). Investigating primary and secondary school staff views on the level of need for educational psychology services in England: 'What does good look like?'. Educational Psychology in Practice, 40(2), 220-236.