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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.

Who are we?

We are a team of educational psychologists and assistant educational psychologists. We work with:

  • Children and young people
  • Their families
  • School staff in Sheffield

We also have trainee educational psychologists working with us during the year. We help solve concerns about how children are:

  • Growing and developing
  • Making progress
  • Learning

Our psychologists are fully trained. They have a degree in psychology and have done more training after this. They are experienced in working with children and young people aged 0-25. Assistant psychologists and trainees work under the guidance of qualified educational psychologists.

Our mission is "Promoting Positive Futures." Our team works hard to make this happen. We follow these values:

  • Solution-Focused
  • Person-Centred
  • Inclusive
  • Reflective
  • Ethical 

Who do we work with?

We support children and young people aged 0-25 who may have extra needs that affect their learning, such as:

  • Communication and interaction
  • Thinking and learning
  • Social, emotional, and mental health
  • Sensory and physical needs
  • Independence skills

We also work with school staff, parents, carers, and other services across Sheffield. 

What do we do?

We follow The SEND Code of Practice 2014. All Sheffield schools and academies can choose to buy our services, which we call our "traded service." Schools are grouped into seven areas in the city which are called Localities. Each Locality area has time allocated for their priorities.

Our work can include:

  • Helping schools in each area (panels, training, discussing complex cases, consultations)
  • Providing support in schools, like:
    • Planning meetings
    • Consultation and assessments
    • Observations
    • Getting the views of pupils
    • Psychological support
    • Annual reviews
    • Working with other professionals
    • Helping with transitions
    • Training
  • Doing research
  • Giving advice and reports, for example:
    • For education, health, and care (EHC) plans
    • Re-assessing special educational needs

We may gather information through a joint meeting with different agencies. We call this a joint assessment meeting or JAMs for short.

We also:

  • Help vulnerable children, such as those in care
  • Act as expert witnesses in special educational needs tribunals
  • Support schools after a serious incident
  • Work on projects to understand specific needs, like foetal alcohol syndrome or language disorders 

Training we offer

We provide training across the city and in different areas on topics like:

  • Precision teaching
  • Emotional regulation
  • Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA)
  • Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA)
  • Emotion coaching

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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