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Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP)

For educational psychology in England and Wales this has been a very busy and important year. Along with other Divisions and groups in the Society, we have been very involved and focused on the developments and consultations around Statutory Regulation. On the face of it, this does not seem all that exciting, but because it will shape the future of all applied psychologist, to some extent, for the future, it obviously is really important. The Division is very keen to support the Society in its work to try to make the framework for Statutory Regulation appropriate to all applied psychologists, and to educational psychologists.

Most educational psychologists are employed by local authorities but there is a growing number in private practice, reflecting the range of the work and possible future developments. Local Authorities all over the country are in the process of change so as to meet national and government priorities and the move to more integrated children’s services across education, social care and health. The driving force comes from the Every Child Matters agenda and the need to all work together to do the best for children and young people. By joining up the services that work on behalf of children and young people, the intention is that no child's needs, whatever the source, will be lost or mismanaged. Children and Young People's Services seek to improve things through meeting the five outcomes that have been identified by and for children and young people. They are:

Educational psychologist services in Local Authorities are in the process of reviewing and adapting service delivery towards meeting the five outcomes, working in multi-disciplinary teams and providing more community access to educational psychology. Educational psychologists are increasingly involved in developing approaches to promote emotional health and psychological well-being for children and young people, alongside other applied psychologists. We work at the level of organisations and systems, on research and development through to work with individual children and families and in consultation with other adults. What we want Statutory Regulation to ensure for our profession is to maintain the strong interactionist, environmental paradigm that brings a unique contribution to multi-professional working. What we want for the future of educational psychology is to continue to make a contribution at many levels, and ultimately on behalf of children and young people, their families and schools.

The biggest thing that has happened in the world of educational psychology this year is the latest stage in the long saga of the move to three-year professional doctorate training. The whole thing is not news as it has now been going on for some years. We have had many cliff-hangers along the way, and seem just recently to have established at least a secure route for training and funding trainee educational psychologists for the time being. The biggest worry now is the extent to which Local Authorities can find the funding to support three hundred plus trainee educational psychologists each year in a climate of reduced budgets and cost cutting activity across Local Authority services. Will Local Authority leaders decide that yes, we do need to fund the training of an educational psychologist for two years, compared say, to supporting an elderly person to a better quality of life or even mending some holes in the road. These are tough times, deciding on priorities is tough and the money will only go so far. However, professional Doctorate training is now in place and over the next decade we look forward to the further development of a common base for the training of applied psychologists.

Educational psychology is a small profession. In the Division of Educational and Child Psychology we work closely together with the other main national organisations that support the profession. These are the Association of Educational Psychologists and the National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists. The Division has a very active Committee. We work closely with the Division of Educational and Child Psychology Training Committee, that has masterminded the move to three year professional doctorate training, and the Continuing Professional Development Committee. We have editorial groups who organise the compilation of our two publications 'Educational and Child Psychology' and 'Debate'. We have a professional development event and conference every year in January, with high quality presentations that is well attended. In January 2007 we were in Glasgow and did well then in meeting one of our strategic aims of bringing educational psychology more to the notice of the public. There was a lot of national and local press coverage about different presentations at the conference. Of course we are now all geared up to our January 2008 conference that will be in Bournemouth this year, and hope to capture some press and public interest in some of the examples of the innovative, creative and useful work and development being carried out by educational psychologist across the country. You can access information about the annual professional development event, the publications and the work of the Committee on the Division's pages of the Societies website. You can also access information about training to be an educational psychologist on the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) website.

All in all, over the year educational psychology has continued to be future focused and healthy. It has not been a smooth year, what with the continuation of reorganisation of working practices and contexts and the ongoing uncertainties about the funding for three year Doctorate training, but we have made progress. Still, the New Year is always a time for optimism and it is great that we have good cause to be positive about the future.