Educational Psychologist at EQUA Mead Learning Trust/Collaborative Schools Ltd

The Educational Psychologist will work as part of the inclusion team and will be committed to improving the life chances of the pupils we educate and ensure we give Every Child Every Chance. As a growing Trust, we are immensely proud of our staff and endeavour to be an employer of choice. This is an exciting time for EQUA Mead as we continue to grow the number of schools and children we support.

Hours: 27 hours per week, term time only (39 weeks per year). Fixed term commissioning contract.

Whilst we seek to recruit to this number of hours we would accept applications from people who would like to work up to this amount.

Salary: £63 per hour / £475 per day

Job Summary

The Educational Psychologist will support schools, parents and partners within the EQUA Mead Learning Trust and Collaborative Schools Ltd (CSL) to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and young people, through the use of educational psychology.

The successful candidate will work at various levels across the local area and apply psychology to promote inclusion and the strategy supporting children and young people with SEND (including emotional wellbeing and mental health). The service promotes a consultation model aligned with the SEND Code of Practice Assess Plan Do Review process across schools and settings.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

•          To support schools, early years settings, families, children and young people to facilitate positive outcomes for vulnerable children and young people and those with special educational needs
•           To work collaboratively alongside other support services and peers to deliver integrated and co-ordinated support which is built around the needs of children and young people.
•           To contribute to the delivery of effective training, supervision and interventions for professionals and others across a range of settings.
  
•           To work within a multi-agency team supporting SEMH needs of children.
  
•           To deliver support and advice to parents/carers as appropriate within both group sessions and 1:1.
  
•           To apply a sound understanding of the legislation that guides the work of EPs and adhere to the values within this work.
  
•           To proactively support the development of culturally responsive practice relating to the role of Educational Psychology.
  
•           To maintain professional knowledge via research and learning from case studies and methodology.
  
•           To use group techniques (e.g. solution circles, nominal group techniques, rich pictures, appreciative enquiry, formulation) to facilitate change and recognise how this work is an important part of local area leadership
  
•           To carry out other duties as may be allocated commensurate with the grade of the post.
  
•           To work within the codes of conduct and ethics of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Division of Educational and Child Psychology of the British Psychological Society (BPS).  

Specific requirements for this post:

•           Requires frequent use of private transport.
•          The ability to work remotely from direct line management.
  
•           The postholder may occasionally take part in meetings when the participants are very anxious and hold conflicting views.

Confidentiality

During the course of your work you may see, hear or have access to, information on matters of a confidential nature relating to the work of the Trust or to the health and personal affairs of pupils and staff. Under no circumstances should such information be divulged or passed on to any unauthorised person or organisation.      

This Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow Safer Recruitment procedures and all interviews, regardless of role, will include questions about approaches to safeguarding. Our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy is available on our website and follows all guidance in the most recent Keeping Children Safe in Education.  

All posts involving direct contact with children are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. However, amendments to the Exception Order 1975 (2013 & 2020) provide that certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’.  These are not subject to disclosure to employers and cannot be taken into account. Guidance and criteria on the filtering of these cautions and convictions can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

Please note that by submitting an application, you acknowledge that we reserve the right to view any publicly available information published online (including social media platforms) as part of our shortlisting process, in line with current KCSIE guidelines.