Classifications
Job Information
Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company that has a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate enabling us to do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), we offer the freedoms of a social enterprise with the employment benefits of local government. To find out more about us click here.
Educational Psychologist
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.
This is a particularly exciting time to join AfC EPS. The national SEND reform agenda presents significant opportunities for EPs to shape inclusive systems, strengthen early intervention, and influence how support is delivered locally. AfC EPS have been fundamental in shaping and developing the local Expert at Hand (EAH) model. Over the coming year, we are looking forward to piloting our EAH offer and playing a key role in evaluating its impact. Alongside this, EPs will have opportunities to contribute to the implementation and evaluation of wider SEND reform developments, helping to shape future service delivery and ensuring that psychology remains at the heart of system change across the local area.
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, contributing to local work and understanding around Extended Non-attendance from School (ENAS), and shaping TA support. Our service also offers the standard provision of ELSA, workforce development training, and Early Years’ consultations, which next year we are looking to develop further through an exciting programme of work within Family Hubs. This emerging area of practice will provide EPs with opportunities to shape service delivery, strengthen support for families in the early years, and work collaboratively with a range of professionals to improve outcomes through psychologically informed approaches.
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.
About the role
As an Educational Psychologist for Achieving for Children you will be joining:
- An EP team which is highly regarded by schools and other services/organisations across Kingston and Richmond.
- A service at the forefront of local SEND developments, with EPs playing a key role in shaping inclusive practice, early intervention and strategic reform initiatives.
- 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’.
If you would like to find out more about this exciting opportunity, please contact a member of our EPS Leadership Team on 020 8547 6698 for an informal discussion. Alternatively, emails can be sent to our Educational Psychology email address: educational.psychology@achievingforchildren.org.uk
About you
To be an Educational Psychologist for AfC, you will be passionate about making a positive difference to the lives of children and young people as well as demonstrating the following points:
- Committed to operating within a consultative framework, can demonstrate awareness of how to make an impact in applying psychology to affect change, and view teamwork and peer support as key factors in a successful service.
- Ability to use, describe and explain psychological concepts, theories, research and practice in a way which enthuses others and adds to their understanding.
- Interested in working systemically across two boroughs and committed to early intervention.
Qualifications
- Post graduate professional qualification in Educational Psychology.
- Good Honours degree in Psychology or equivalent recognised by BPS and which satisfies the BPS’ requirements for graduate basis for registration (GBR).
- Active registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist (Educational Psychologist) and proven evidence of continuing professional development.
Skills and experience
- Direct, relevant and appropriate work with children and young people (0 – 25 years) within educational, childcare or community settings.
- The experience of the application of psychology to the benefit of children and young people in a variety of settings.
- A clear understanding of the skills involved in operating within a consultative framework of service delivery which does not focus primarily on statutory work.
- ‘Conscious competence’ regarding the models of psychology being drawn on in day-to-day work, including the ability to apply interactionist and systemic frameworks to facilitate change.
- Ability to use, describe and explain psychological concepts, theories, research and practice in a way which enthuses others and adds to their understanding.
- Experience of addressing specific equality or diversity issues within your practice with colleagues/service users and taking action to solve them.
- Clear and detailed understanding of the legislative framework under which Local Authorities/Social Enterprises now operate.
- Knowledge of current educational policy and practice particularly in relation to the implementation and current assessment of the National Curriculum.
- Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with.
Please note: This post is not paid on Soulbury terms and conditions and an enhanced DBS is required.
About our benefits
We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to:
- 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
- Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
- Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
- Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
- A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
- A range of staff benefits and discounts
- An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway
To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children click here. For our social work offer click here. For our Recruitment Journey, click here.
Important Information
Start dates: Achieving for Children have set start dates meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.
Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.
Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.
Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
