Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist – SEMH specialism

Permanent contract
37 hours per week.
Soulbury B (3-6) plus 3 SPAs

At Telford & Wrekin EPS, we prioritise creative and collaborative approaches informed by modern psychology to support children in a variety of contexts, within schools and throughout the community. As a team, we are always surveying the horizons and actively seeking new and innovative ways of working to support families and young people. Through this, we are developing holistic and preventative approaches to promote the wellbeing of children and families across Telford & Wrekin.

We are looking to recruit to a brand new Specialist Senior EP role in Telford & Wrekin’s EP team. Alongside a clearly-boundaried approach to supporting the delivery of consultation-based traded and statutory commitments (0.6 FTE), you will take a lead role in the development and delivery of a range of creative strategic initiatives relating to meeting the SEMH needs of our children and young people (0.4 FTE). We have a number of both established and newer projects including ELSA, community psychology with families through our links with Parents Opening Doors (PODs), our Blue Sky project which is grounded in the principles of ACT, supervision of Mental Health leads in schools and new exciting strategic developments around whole school mental health and wellbeing practices, underpinned by the Sandwell Wellbeing Charter Mark. The role would be ideally placed for an experienced main grade or senior/specialist practitioner.

EP wishing to evolve their career.

We offer

• A close-knit, supportive and highly regarded EPS which provides opportunities for varied types of work. See http://www.telfordeducationservices.co.uk/educationalpsychologyservice for more information.
• Outstanding team support including protected regular time for supervision from an HCPC registered Educational Psychologist and regular F2F peer (group) supervision.
• A well balanced approach to office and home working, enabling flexibility alongside extensive opportunity for relationship building and incidental peer supervision.
• A Council whose Children’s Services were graded Outstanding in the most recent Ofsted/CQC Inspection 2023, and who were named Council of The Year at the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Annual Service Awards 2021.

To undertake the duties of an Educational Psychologist and take a lead role in developing service delivery relating to an area of specialism (SEMH), as agreed with the Co-PEPs and senior managers. In support of this, 0.4 of your time would be specifically allocated for the SEMH specialism.

Specialist Senior EP job purpose (0.6):

• To contribute to operational service delivery, supervision and performance management as directed by the Co-PEPs/SEP.
• To assist and deputise for the Senior Educational Psychologist (SEP) when required.
• To apply psychology in schools and the wider community to promote the positive development and the well being of children and young people.
• To promote and secure positive life outcomes for all children, young people and their families in Telford & Wrekin.
• To contribute to work that aims to improve educational and social outcomes for children and young people living and being educated in Telford & Wrekin.
• To support the Educational Psychology service to provide efficient and effective commissioned tasks for the Local Authority and traded services to schools and other settings/agencies.

SEMH Specialist EP job purpose (0.4)

To promote the educational, emotional and personal development of children and young people by applying knowledge of psychology in working with:

• children and young people with complex SEMH needs, including those who are not in education;
• key people in their lives (e.g. parents/carers, teachers, learning support assistants) who have concerns about some aspect(s) of their progress or development;
• other professionals and partner agencies working to support the social and emotional development (e.g. the attendance team, colleagues from Early Help)
• to promote meaningful, effective, inclusive outcomes relating to the concerns expressed by individuals;
• to contribute to strategic research, project delivery and development work relating to established and newer projects as agreed;
• to provide effective clinical supervision to EP/Trainee EP/Assistant EP colleagues and multi-agency colleagues as agreed.

At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice.

Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check. It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups.

A CV template is available if you do not already have a CV.

For any further information, please contact Co-Principal Educational Psychologists Dr Meryl Newton meryl.newton@telford.gov.uk and Dr Jane Park jane.park@telford.gov.uk

Supporting documents
Job Description & Person Specification
Employee Benefits
CV Template