Information for parents, carers and/or Educational Psychology Service (EPS) partners

Getting involved with an educational psychologist

On occasion, either a parent/carer or a child’s school or nursery may have a concern regarding a child’s progress. A school or nursery will be looking at this through the Staged Intervention process. As part of this process they may wish to involve an educational psychologist. Any parent/carer can also contact the service directly even if their child is not in an educational establishment.

If a school or nursery wish to start with advice from the educational psychologist, the parent/carer will be asked to sign a form to allow the school to consult with the educational psychologist, who will keep this information in a case file. This may be a one-off consultation or a series of consultations. Following this, there are two options: 

  • The case file for the child will be discharged and the parent/carer will be notified by the educational psychologist. The child’s progress will continue to be monitored within the Staged Intervention process
  • It may be agreed that the child would benefit from further support beyond consultation. In this case, parents/carers will be invited to a Staged Intervention meeting. Everyone at the meeting will have the opportunity to be a full participant in planning next steps. The educational psychologist will confirm what their involvement might be and ensure there is parental permission to proceed.

Confidentiality

Any involvement with an educational psychologist requires a case file to be opened for the child/young person. Most of the information we hold is in paper form and is kept in an individual file in locked cabinets. The case file may hold information from:

  • The child/young person themselves
  • Parents/carers
  • Teachers at the child/young person’s school/early years establishment

We might also get information from other people involved with the child, such as a social worker, doctor or speech and language therapist. We will seek parental permission before liaising with other agencies. We will respect any confidential information we receive on a child, other than in those situations where to do so might put at risk a child’s safety or physical or emotional well-being. 

When we have completed a piece of work we will close the case file and advise the parent/carer in writing. Closed files are archived and stored securely by us until the young person reaches the age of 23. The files are then confidentially destroyed.

Access to information

We will send copies of any reports we write about a child to the parent/carer. In addition the parent/carer can ask to see the child’s file and young people can also request access to the information we have about them. We would like requests to be made in writing to the principal educational psychologist.

Should you require further information or wish to speak to an educational psychologist, please contact us.