INTERNAL ONLY VACANCY. This post is open to existing Leeds City Council employees only. Applications will not be considered from external candidates.
Job title: Senior Educational Psychologist
Salary: Soulbury B Scale (5-7)
Hours: 37
Contract: Fixed term
Location: Leeds
As a Senior Educational Psychologist you’ll thrive on working collaboratively with children, families and educators and leading a dedicated team making a real difference to children’s wellbeing, communication and learning.
This 6 month fixed term role is an opportunity for an experienced educational psychologist to build on their experience by taking on strategic responsibility within a defined area of work. You will provide leadership, supervision and support to an area team of educational psychologists and develop productive relationships with partners in education, health and social care.
As a member of Leeds Educational Psychology Team, you will also deliver some psychological services to schools, settings and communities. Using a child-centred approach, you will assess a young person’s needs, advocate for them and provide interventions that promote inclusion and put their welfare front and centre.
Our team works to enable collaboration, multi-agency working, consultation and continuous improvement. We are part of Leeds City Council’s children’s services, rated outstanding by Ofsted at the last inspection.
We are committed to the ambition of Child Friendly Leeds. We want Leeds to be a city where all children are safe, happy and healthy, do well at school, fulfil their potential and grow up to be active citizens with voice and influence.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
As a Senior Educational Psychologist you will bring to the role:
- a postgraduate qualification in Educational Psychology and registration with the Health and Care Professions Council
- in-depth knowledge and experience of the application of psychology at all levels taking on board the views and aspirations of children, young people and their families
- commitment to using supervision, mentoring and coaching to develop your own practice and that of colleagues
- high level communication skills with ability to influence, motivate and support others, manage conflict, challenge issues and present constructive feedback
- a collaborative approach for effective partnership working in an inter-agency environment
About the role
As a temporary Senior Educational Psychologist, you will be integral to our committed and close-knit educational psychology team and a proactive member of the senior leadership team.
You will lead an area team of educational psychologists to ensure the delivery of a quality service, managing the team day to day and providing supervision, support and guidance to individuals. You will identify training needs and drive forward a continuing professional development programme to build capacity and a workforce fit for the future.
Alongside your leadership responsibilities, you will retain a frontline psychological role with a reduced case allocation. All our educational psychologists work at the heart of the community, in a cluster of schools and settings, applying creativity and psychological expertise to promote inclusion for children and young people from birth to 25 years of age.
In educational psychology we have a strong team ethos of peer supervision, support and collaboration. Our hybrid working model encourages connection and team relationships, with regular team meetings and whole team professional development days.
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
- a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please complete the online application form.
Read our guidancefor further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.
For a further discussion about this role please contact Lucy.Taylor@leeds.gov.uk
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visaroute before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Job purpose Support staff within the framework of the SEN Code of Practice (2015), Children and Families Act (2014), 3As strategy, EP team Plan and Leeds City Council SEND and Inclusion Strategy to provide effective psychological advice, assessment and intervention in order to raise achievement and promote both school improvement and inclusion of children/young people with SEN/LDD.
Responsibilities
- Undertake day-to-day line management, direct consultation, supervision and active support for psychologists working with the most challenging children, families and settings.
- Provide generic psychological support to a reduced allocation of schools/settings.
- Undertake performance management, supervision and problem solving with team members to monitor performance and progress against the team plan.
- Ensure high quality service delivery to schools and settings, in alignment with service delivery arrangements.
- Develop, deliver and oversee training and support to build capacity of frontline staff, particularly in schools/settings causing concern or where significant issues have been identified at the systems level.
- Maintain record keeping in relation to individual case work and other team activities, through active engagement with the council’s data systems and protocols, ensuring statistical data is readily available for team monitoring and evaluation purposes.
- Identify areas for continuing professional development, planning CPD events and programmes for the team, ensuring highest personal and professional standards in relation to psychology, and awareness of national and local initiatives relating to workforce development.
- Undertake effective attendance and sickness monitoring.
- Ensure that BPS and HCPC standards are met.
- Monitoring statutory procedures within the EP Area Team in accordance with the SEN Code of Practice.
- Deploy Assistant EPs/Trainee EPs/EPs within the team, to provide efficient and effective team working and delivery to children, schools and families.
- Gather, analyse and interpret data to monitor and evaluate the impact of team interventions on pupil progress, performance and provision.
- Facilitate professional team meetings/service days to enable effective communication and support to team members.
- Act as the key point of contact when queries, concerns or complaints arise within area EP team and ensure these are resolved promptly or passed on to the appropriate level.
- Provide evidence of the impact of the team’s work using data and management information (especially for targeted vulnerable groups including children looked after).
- Contribute to team development, policy and protocol development as a member of the EP Senior Leadership Team (SLT), including the development of a specific area of responsibility across the EP team, and a contribution to the writing and quarterly monitoring of the Team Plan and with due regard to Children and Young People’s strategic plans.
- Facilitate the effective recruitment, selection and induction of new staff within the EP team.
- Active participation and team representation in any review or inspection processes.
- Implement council policy and action plans, particularly in the areas of complex needs in relation to the EP team.
- Active contribution to the monitoring, challenge, support and intervention role of Children and Families and ensuring relevant and effective support is offered to schools/settings by the EP team in order to meet their ongoing needs.
- Joint collaborative responsibility with Principal EP for team budget in relation to consumable resources, CPD and staffing.
- Be the named lead in critical incident response (as needed across the city) and the council’s emergency response arrangements as requested by the Principal EP.
- Undertake a range of additional SLT duties in support of the Principal EP and Deputy Principal EP.
- Promote and support the development of educational psychology, including maintaining links with universities, providing supervision to Assistant and/or Trainee Educational Psychologists and contributing to the ongoing development of the evidence base within Educational Psychology.
- Effective communication with all stakeholders to support multi-agency partnership working across the council and Children and Families.
- Represent the team on strategic groups, within the council, Children and Families, and at local, regional and national forums.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Qualifications It is essential that you hold a degree in psychology (with eligibility for graduate membership for the British Psychological Society) and a postgraduate qualification in Educational Psychology through either:
- Qualified Teacher Status (with minimum of 2 years teaching experience) and MSc training in Educational Psychology; or
- minimum of 2 years’ experience of working with children and young people and 3 year doctorate training in Educational Psychology.
- Candidates must be registered with the HCPC.
Essential requirements It is essential that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post. Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate that they meet all the essential requirements.
- Able to manage self with effective interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to manage change, respond flexibly to new ideas and promote change as a natural process within the EP team.
- High level communication skills, with ability to challenge and influence, deal effectively with conflict and present feedback in a sensitive, honest and constructive manner.
- Highly effective time management and organisational skills, with ability to manage a challenging workload within a pressurised environment with identified deadlines.
- Able to manage EP team and develop performance through supervision, mentoring and coaching to develop individuals to deliver key priorities of the EP team.
- Able to manage resources including organisational project and/or resource management and delegated aspects of budget.
- Able to gather, analyse and interpret data to monitor and evaluate the impact of team interventions on pupil progress, performance and provision. Identification of actions that are likely to lead to improvement and ensure quality assurance procedures for evaluating staff impact and outcomes
- Use ICT and technology effectively and encourage others to develop technical solutions in response to change.
- Able to support inter-agency and partnership working.
- Able to provide effective links and maintain relationships with colleagues and partners at a range of levels, to maximise impact in terms of focussed psychological intervention for children and young people.
- Able to provide effective partnership working to ensure effective development, interpretation and implementation of strategies.
- Knowledge and understanding of the SEN Code of Practice (2015), Children and Families Act (2014), and other national and local legislation and developments and good practice in relation to inclusion, education and SEN/LDD.
- Knowledge of a variety of methods of psychological assessment and intervention and use of applied psychology in a range of settings.
- Knowledge of relevant information influencing the work of educational psychology.
- Knowledge of the workings of local government and public sector.
- Experience of effective practice as an Educational Psychologist, with ability to provide sound professional advice.
Essential Behavioural & other Characteristics
- Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct.
- Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
- Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council equality and diversity policies.
- Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health and Safety Policies.
- Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities.
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
- Participate in appraisal, training, and development activities.
- Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity policies of Leeds City Council.
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person.
- The council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.
