Educational Psychology Service

What is an EP consultation?

EP consultation is one way in which the EP service supports schools and families to meet a child/young person's special educational needs.  This is usually part of a school's Assess, Plan, Do, Review process.

EP consultation is a meeting at your child's school between you, the Class Teacher / Head of Year, the SENCo, and the EP.  Sometimes a young person joins in too. During this meeting everyone will have the opportunity to share their knowledge, views and ideas.  The EPs role is to guide the conversation, ask questions and support others to plan a way forward for the child / young person.  The EP will use their knowledge of child development and psychological understanding to support the process.  

Why do we use consultation?

Consultation is effective because it helps everyone to have a shared understanding of the issues, identifies small steps that are focussed on specific short term outcomes and by the end of the meeting participants know what they need to do to support the child/young person.

How can parents prepare for an EP consultation?

Consultations works best when adults come to the consultation well prepared and with relevant information. 

Before the EP consultation, a member of school staff will have supported you to complete and sign a Service Request Form and an ISL Baseline Assessment Form.  Copies of these will have been sent to the EP and read prior to the meeting.  

If there is any additional information or documentation that you think is important to share with the EP, please bring this along with you. 

If you have any questions or concerns before the meeting, please speak to the SENCo at your child's school. 

What happens next?

During the consultation, notes will be taken as a record of the conversation and agreed ways forward.  These notes will be stored electronically by the EP service, in accordance with HCC's policies and data protection requirements. 

You will receive a copy of these notes following the consultation, however you are also welcome to take your own notes during the meeting.

A review date will be set approximately 6-8 weeks later which is usually attended by you and school staff.  The review meeting is to discuss progress and the impact of the agreed ways forward.  The SENCo will take and share notes from the Review meeting with the EP and, if necessary, further involvement from the EP service will then be discussed.

When you apply for an assessment of your child's need to see if they qualify for an education, health and care plan (EHCP), a panel that includes our Deputy Principal Educational Psychologist (DPEP) make a decision whether or not to assess.

If the decision is made to asses your child's needs, this is the process of our involvement, although it will look slightly different for each child.

When the decision to assess your child's needs is made

• Our Deputy Principal Educational Psychologist (DPEP) reads all of the information received as part of your EHC application.
• Based on this, they make a suggestion about how much EP involvement they feel is needed during your child's assessment of need, and assign an EP to you.

An EP is assigned to you and a plan is agreed

• Your assigned EP reads the information and advices from your application, to consider if they agree with the DPEP's suggestions. The EP is able to decide on a different route if they feel it is needed.
• Your EP will speak to you to explain their planned approach to involvement in your child's assessment of need, and describe the activities that will take place.
• You will be asked to give your consent to the plans; you have a right to not consent if you wish. If you are not happy with the suggested approach, you can work with your EP to agree a different plan. 

What our involvement may include

• We decide on the level of our involvement based on what evidence and advice you have already from other professionals.
• If you have worked a lot with the SEND specialist advisory service already, for example, we may not need to meet your child, because we can use their detailed information to base our advice on. 
• For more complex cases, we may have more involvement.  

EP involvement is carried out and the advices are shared

• You, your SEN Officer, and your school will receive the agreed advices from your EP.
• The advices will differ for every child, so that in each process, we deliver quality advice that addresses their individual needs and includes specific, goal based outcomes.