Educational Psychologists Jobs

Please see quotes from our colleagues below who share their views about what they enjoy about working in Cambridgeshire.

• “We are given the professional trust and value to approach casework in a way which we feel best meets the needs of the young person"
• "I feel that our views and approaches are valued and that we can have impact on issues within the wider organisation which mean that we can make a real difference"
• “We have the professional autonomy to carve out opportunities to explore the issues that we think are important though research, training and CPD"
• "My EP colleagues are awesome: we work hard and we get things done and we laugh together a lot".

We are a group of EPs, trainee EPs, senior EPs and two acting co-principal EPs, who work within the SEND Service as part of a multi-disciplinary team. This is a friendly, supportive service comprising of specialist teachers, specialist practitioners and the Sensory service. There are great opportunities for joint working and problem solving.

We are committed to promoting inclusion and a strong voice for the child/young person. We achieve this through applying psychology and evidence-based strategies to create change and positive outcomes for young people. We are committed to Cambridgeshire’s Inclusion for All approach. We play a key role in promoting this initiative.

Cambridgeshire has maintained a model of service delivery that is free at the point of delivery to schools and settings. We believe that this has a positive impact on the relationships we can form with schools. It means that no local authority maintained school or academy is without EP support. As schools aren’t buying our service, we feel we can work collaboratively with them to identify the best ways of working and to be a critical friend when needed. It also enables us to offer early intervention and training in areas identified as requiring support. There is also no obligation to write reports for non-statutory work.

Our EPs favour a number of different approaches to assessment and intervention. They have autonomy to work in the way they feel fits best with their professional identity and what is best for the individual situation. In any of our four office bases you may see standardised, dynamic or curriculum assessments, as well as person-centred planning approaches, personal construct psychology and many others.

We pride ourselves on our individual and peer supervision. EPs are encouraged to make the most of dedicated time for continuing professional development. Each area has a senior EP who facilitates supervisions. Annual feedback consistently shows how effective our model is and how much it is valued.

We are at the forefront of understanding dyslexia / literacy difficulties in the country. Our guidance has been commended by the British Dyslexia Association (BDA). We use a social justice model, based on the most up to date research, and deliver an excellent training programme to support this.

“Cambridgeshire should be commended for an excellent, evidence-based Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties Local Offer.” - Helen Boden CEO  BDA

Read the full report

Cambridgeshire’s approach to supporting children with dyslexia/literacy difficulties is being heralded further afield too. Prof Joe Elliott, Author of The Dyslexia Debate (Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development) has been sharing Cambridgeshire’s approach to supporting children with dyslexia/literacy difficulties with senators in the US and is soon to be discussed in New Zealand. 

The actual words from Prof Elliott, to the Cambridgeshire team were:

“I have been talking about you guys with Senators in the State Capital Building

You seem to be a long way ahead of these guys.

I’m also talking with leaders of the EP profession in New Zealand.”

Cambridgeshire's work has been described by leading dyslexia academics as being ‘ahead of the game’ and we are proud of the work we are doing here.

Some articles from The Guardian

Battle over dyslexia Warwickshire Staffordshire

The fight over dyslexia podcast

We support children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs across the county. This includes individual casework as well as at a more strategic level.

A team of EP colleagues have developed an excellent Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) toolkit. Parents and schools have highlighted this as an incredibly helpful resource. A range of professionals are using it, including school staff and EPs. The feedback has been extremely positive. It has helped shape conversations and empower people to think about next steps.

We continue to invest in Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) and have a number of EPs training/trained and using VIG. We have an active Emotional Literacy Support Assistant network that continues to grow each year. Alongside this we offer Recovery Through Relationships training. This is an innovative trauma-informed tiered training package, co-produced in Cambridgeshire by Educational Psychologists, Advisors in the Virtual School and colleagues in SEND Service.

EPs have led on developing and setting up Enhanced Resource Bases (ERBs) in primary schools in Cambridgeshire. The ERBs offer specialist and bespoke support for children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs. EPs continue to be involved in the support of ERBs through supervision, using Person Centred Planning Tools and offering psychological support within the settings.

EPs are involved in many related pieces of work including:

• individual casework
• delivering training to education professionals and teachers-in-training
• working with autistic children and young people and their parents and carers.

We have a very close relationship with our health colleagues to deliver our joint autism offer.

We are the strategic partner in the East of England for the Autism Education Trust (AET). This means that Cambridgeshire operates as a regional training hub. We also work collaboratively with trainers in some of our neighbouring Local Authorities such as Norfolk, Essex, Peterborough and Hertfordshire. Our EPs regularly deliver the AET training programme to Early Years settings, schools, and Post-16 settings across the eastern region.

Working with the AET gives EPs in Cambridgeshire links to the work of nationwide organisations such as the National Autistic Society, Ambitious About Autism, and the Council for Disabled Children. The training programme is underpinned by current research into good education practice, and by the experiences of autistic young people and their families. This in turn informs our practice and casework in this area.