Kingston and Richmond EPS (Achieving for Children, AfC) - Educational Psychologist

EP Position available in Kingston and Richmond EPS (part of Achieving for Children, AfC)

We are a service that is highly valued within our organisation; our diverse and wide-ranging skills as psychologists are recognised, well understood and very much in demand. We are also a service that successfully income generates and given the increased desire from our schools and partners for next year, we are looking for enthusiastic and creative psychologists to join our supportive and innovative team. Kingston and Richmond EPS are part of a Social Enterprise, Achieving for Children (AfC), which provides Children's Services to Kingston, Richmond and Windsor and Maidenhead. It provides the security and benefits of working for a Local Authority, such as systemic and multi-disciplinary work, but has greater freedoms in its ability to trade and develop innovative practice.

We are a large and supportive psychological team with a range of professional interests and experiences. Each EP works with a dedicated patch of schools, and our strong level of buyback enables them to maintain a consistent presence and deliver a broad range of activities within their settings. The team is currently leading an Attachment Aware and Trauma Informed project with colleagues from the Virtual School across schools in Kingston and Richmond, alongside developing work with schools on executive functioning, emotionally-based school absenteeism (EBSA), and TA support (including hosting a forthcoming conference for TAs). Our service also offers the standard provision of ELSA, workforce development training, and Early Years’ consultations.

Our service operates a transparent and proportional time allocation model, set at the beginning of an academic year, which has flexibility in-built to take into account the realities of unexpected events. Core functions such as supervision, line management, CPD, and team meetings are top-sliced to protect the wellbeing and professional standards of the team. The remaining time is then divided into three purposeful strands: direct school work, rota activity, and service development/income generation/community psychology projects. While we fully acknowledge the importance of the statutory responsibilities of the EP role, we are committed to ensuring this represents only one element of rich and varied practice. To support this balance, rota work (i.e. directed EHC needs assessment) currently accounts for just 19% of time after top-slice, enabling EPs to contribute meaningfully to both statutory and wider preventative, holistic, and community-focused work.

As an Educational Psychologist for AfC you will be joining:

• An EP team which is highly regarded by schools and other services/organisations across Kingston and Richmond.
• A collaborative EP team, where working together is encouraged and opportunities to work in pairs or small groups are routinely built into our practice.
• An EPS that highly values supervision, offering both group and individual supervision to support reflective, safe and effective practice.
• A service which successfully commissions and trades with a wide range of stakeholders, allowing for creative and interesting systemic and early intervention opportunities.
• A service which keeps psychological theory and research at the forefront of all our practice and work, and is committed to providing a high-quality evidence-based psychological service to children and young people in our communities.
• A service which highly values professional development and service development. As such, we ensure there is protected time for all EPs to work collectively and systemically. Our safeguarded time enables us to focus on training, service development, project work and early intervention.
• A service that is a well-established part of Kingston and Richmond schools’ assess, plan, do and review cycles ensuring that statutory activity is kept at a manageable level and focused on ‘making the difference’.

We have the flexibility for successful applicants to be based in either Kingston or Richmond, or a mixture of both. If you are interested in finding out more or applying, please do look at our advert via this link; View vacancy details and/or get in contact with a member of our team. Informal enquiries are more than welcomed and can be done via 020 8547 6698 or educational.psychology@achievingforchildren.org.uk
Applicants must be professionally qualified and registered with the HCPC or be in their final year of training on a professional Educational Psychology Doctoral programme.

NB. Applicants to note that this post is not paid on Soulbury terms and conditions, and an enhanced DBS check is required.