Blackstone Recruitment are working with a council based in Kent who are requiring locum Educational Psychologists to join their team.
Inside IR35. £1450 Per assessment!
DESIGNATION Educational Psychologist
DEPARTMENT Children’s and Adults
RESPONSIBLE TO Head of Integrated Services/Principal Educational Psychologist
GRADE Soulbury A 2-7 and existing SPA points will be honoured
- MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB
The overall aim of the post is to promote the psychological well being of all children and young people in Medway, and to support those whose psychological needs are impacting on their ability to learn, socialise and develop emotionally in order to maximise opportunities for inclusion.
We do this by having a named EP for every school and academy and offer 3 consultation meetings a year. We are increasingly a traded service with schools and academies purchasing EP time for assessments, interventions, therapeutic work, training and systemic work. We also provide statutory assessments for Education, Health and Care Plans and support Medway Council in meeting its statutory duties for those with SEND.
- PERSON SPECIFICATION
Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate in Educational Psychology, or MSc in Educational Psychology and at least two years teaching experience.
- Or, be currently in the third year undertaking a recognised professional doctorate for Educational Psychology
- Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Experience
Essential
- An understanding of the changing context of Educational Psychology.
- To be able to identify the specific contribution that can be made by an educational psychologist to a range of settings.
- Knowledge of psychological models, theories and current issues.
- Ability to apply appropriate information gathering techniques and generate valid psychological hypotheses
- Ability to apply psychological approaches to achieve positive outcomes
- Demonstrable understanding of safe guarding issues.
Desirable
- Experience as an Educational Psychologist
Skills
Essential
- Full Driving Licence and a willingness to travel in order to undertake EP duties within Medway and occasionally beyond.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex information in an understandable way.
- Ability to monitor the effects of decisions, taking account of risks and being prepared to take ownership of actions, and modify own and others work practices where necessary
- Commitment to continually seek and implement improvements and helping others to cope with change
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Excellent customer care skills, with experience of adapting services, where possible, to meet customer needs and can take the initiative to work with other agencies where necessary.
- Commitment to equality and diversity, seeking to remove barriers that may prevent people accessing services.
- Demonstrable experience of coping well under pressure and difficult situations, able to identify and act on own development needs.
- Ability to be a team player, contributing to the EP team and the wider service
- A high level of initiative and/or independence is expected of the postholder, as much of the service is delivered across Medway in educational settings.
EPs will be expected to negotiate, commission and manage much of their school based workload via In School Review meetings that occur termly in schools, and also via other appropriate commissioning processes such as the annual reviews of EP service delivery that occur in all establishments served by the EPS.
EPs will need to manage statutory work within timescales and prioritise this if necessary.
JOB CONTEXT - DESCRIBE THE MAIN CONTACTS, BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL AND THE PURPOSE OF THOSE CONTACTS
EPs are linked to individual schools and academies and will be expected to engage with them to ensure service delivery standards are maintained.
EPs also work closely with other teams both within the Local Authority e.g. SEN Team, Inclusion Team, Physical and Sensory Service, Social Care 0-25 Disability Team and colleagues in Health
- FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITIES
There are no specific financial accountabilities associated with the post, apart from understanding traded services and a commitment to supporting management in ensuring the EPS delivers services in a cost effective way and that overall budgetary targets are met
- WORKING ENVIRONMENT
The EPS is based at Gun Wharf, with the majority of centralised Council staff. EPs hot-desk within the team and flexible working is sometimes required. Excellent IT support is provided to facilitate this.
In the course of their work, EPs are expected to be willing to travel throughout the Medway area and a considerable amount of direct work is likely to be undertaken within school environments. EPs are expected to provide their own vehicle for work for which they will receive essential users allowance plus petrol expenses at the nationally agreed rates.
Please APPLY now or contact Kirsty at Blackstone on 0203 146 9848 / kirsty.chasmer@blackstone-recruitment.co.uk