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Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

A Council-run service providing SEND support across all areas of need.

Supports children and young people: 0-25 years.

Referral reason: Concerns that a child/young person has additional educational needs that are not being met.

The Sheffield Educational Psychology Service work with all schools in Sheffield.  They work with children in the Early Years and young people up to the age of 25.

The service also gets involved in other work in schools/ settings – e.g. training, staffing issues, coaching, absenteeism, behaviour policy, working with parents.

People involved: Educational psychologists (EPs) and Assistant Educational psychologists

Offer: Advice, assessment and support is given where appropriate.

Educational Psychologists (EPs) have a statutory role in every Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.  They work in a variety of ways to offer early intervention for children and young people. This includes assessment, consultation, training and support for staff and parents. All EPs have a degree in psychology, further postgraduate training, and are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Some examples of the work EPs offer includes:

  • Training and supervision for Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs)
  • Support for children and young people experiencing Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
  • Training and support in Precision Teaching to support children struggling to develop basic skills
  • Support in understanding and assessing the functions of challenging behaviours and planning to meet the underlying needs

The Educational Psychology Service (EPS) supports with transition in many ways.

We can give support to schools and other settings to develop good transition plans.  This helps vulnerable pupils to have a successful transition.   This could be to a new setting, between year groups or key stage.

We may go to and provide a report for any annual review meetings for children and young people with Education Health and Care (EHC) Plans.  This can be helpful when planning for transition.

We can run transition interventions at a small group level in education settings.

If parents have questions about transition, contact the child/young person's school SENCo first.  The SENCO can then involve EPS if needed.  

How to refer

Schools and other education settings can refer with parental consent. In order for a child to be discussed in school, parents must have signed the referral form.

Schools/settings will be asked to prioritise involvement against available EP time.

Other practitioners, services and families can contact the service but as we are educational psychologists, most of the time we will find ways of including a school/education setting in the issues that are raised.

More information

The Eductional Psychology Service have put together a sleep advice sheet for young people and families.  Click here to open the document.

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