Schools/FE

Each Leicester City maintained school and academy has a named EP who meets twice yearly with school staff to agree a plan of work for the school. Further education colleges can also contact the service.

Further information

Referrals

Referrals to the service normally follow initial support and intervention by the school or college including other outside agency involvement as appropriate as part of the graduated approach to meeting special educational needs and can only be made with consent of the parent/carer and or young person (16+). All referrals should first be discussed with an EP.

The SEND Services referral can be found at schools.leicester.gov.uk/psychology-service.

Parents/carers can also contact the Psychology Service directly, either by telephone or email if they wish to seek advice about their child.

EP work

EPs provide support and consultation to school staff as well as undertaking work with individual children where there are concerns about their development, learning and/or emotional well-being. Once a referral has been agreed, the EP may hold an initial consultation with relevant staff to clarify the concerns and decide an appropriate course of action. This may involve further discussion with parents/carers and others to agree an appropriate joint plan of action that addresses the concerns about the child. The EP may carry out further assessment and information gathering to support an appropriate plan of action. The EP would normally join the relevant staff, other involved professionals, parents/carers, and the child (where at all possible) to review the plan and decide next steps.

The EP would normally provide a record of their work with any immediate recommendations and future action. Or it may be agreed for the school staff to record the notes and agreed actions. More detailed reports will be provided on completion of an extended piece of work within a timeline agreed with the relevant parties. This would be copied to parents/carers and relevant professionals involved with the child.

The SEND Code of Practice provides detailed advice on the graduated approach to meeting children’s special educational needs. Along with this we have a locally agreed framework called BERA (Best Endeavours and Reasonable Adjustments) within which the City Psychology Service and SEND Services work with schools/settings/colleges. The Service is responsible for providing psychological advice as part of a statutory Education, Health, and Care assessment under the 2014 Children and Families Act where this has been agreed by the local authority.

Training

The service offers a broad range of training for schools and colleges. All training is provided on a traded basis and details of courses provided by the service in partnership with other services can be accessed in the SEND training brochure which is available from: SEND Courses » Leicester City Council - SEND (bookinglive.com).

Traded work

The Service can also provide additional time to schools and colleges on a traded basis for child focused consultation, advice, and interventions (including therapeutic group work) as well as consultation, project work and research to support whole school/college improvement. Further details can be access from: schools.leicester.gov.uk/services/psychology-service/our-traded-offer-to-schools-2025-2026.