Cornwall Council has an Educational Psychology Service. It includes Educational Psychologists (EPs) and other psychology practitioners.
Educational Psychologists are specialists in learning, emotional well-being and child development. We work directly or indirectly with children and young people. We also provide advice to their parents and other adults who teach and support them.
Who we work with
We work with children and young people, their families and educational settings. Our role is to promote positive outcomes for vulnerable groups of children and young people including:
children and young people with general or specific learning difficulties
children and young people with physical disabilities and significant medical needs
children and young people in care and those who have Social Care involvement
young people with emotional and mental health needs. They may also present with behavioural difficulties
What we do
We provide specific pieces of statutory and core work. We are funded to provide this free to educational settings within Cornwall.
Statutory Work
We are the sole provider commissioned by the Council to carry out statutory psychological work. This is to assess children and young people with Special Educational Needs. 'Statutory’ means that these services are something that Cornwall Council is obliged to provide, by law.
On behalf of the Council we carry out the following statutory duties:
Providing assessment and written Psychological Advice. We do this as part of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment or reassessment of a child or young person (aged 0-25)
Providing psychological knowledge and opinion at Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunals. We do this for children or young people on behalf of the local authority
Contribution to the Statutory Special Educational Needs Panel
High priority casework requested by the Manager of the Statutory SEND Team. This is agreed by the Principal Educational Psychologist
Core Work
Currently our core offer of support is limited to work to support settings affected by a bereavement or critical incident within the school or setting.
How you can get support from the Service
A child or young person will be referred to the Educational Psychology Service by their school or education setting. We work with individual children and young people, and aim to gain an understanding of the whole child. We will also work with their parents or carers, teachers, and other professionals.
Our Services and Support
We can work with children and young people, and their individual families.
We can also support families, through Video Interaction Guidance and other services.
We offer group interventions, including Emotion Coaching, tailored to specific situations.
We can support whole school, for example following a traumatic event, as well as offer staff training, and support.
Schools can access the service via the Services for Schools platform.
Useful information and documents
Parents cannot access the schools platform to request Educational Psychology support for their child or young person. Please talk to the school to discuss this, if you think it would help your child or young person. There is some information that is available to parents including:
You can also access the Consent Form and Privacy Notice