Assistant Educational Psychologist

Team: Educational Psychology Service 
Salary: AEP points 2-5 - £34,564 - £38,555 per annum pro rata. Starting salary negotiable depending on experience

Hours:  18.5 hours per week (hours can be flexible) - Term time only

Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.

Contract Type: Hybrid - Fixed term for 12 months
Closing Date: 16th March 2025
Interviews: 28th March 2025

About the role:  

Our service is growing, and we have ambitious plans for the future. Central Bedfordshire Council has an unwavering commitment to early intervention, supported by Senior Leaders across the Children and Families Directorate.

Through the Change Partnership Programme, we are expanding our early intervention offer. We are looking for dynamic and confident Assistant Educational Psychologists to join the team to work on two distinct pilot projects:

• Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) – working with a multi-agency group of professionals across Education, Health and Social Care to support 5 pilot case study projects in implementing new guidance and a school-based toolkit to support children, young people and their families experiencing EBSA.
• Alternative Provision Support Team – working with alternative provisions within Central Bedfordshire who have temporary placements for young people who are at risk of permanent exclusion.

This is a unique opportunity to engage in the delivery and evaluation of pilot projects, with a specific focus on improving the educational experiences and outcomes for young people who are facing significant barriers in their access to education, and for some, who are at risk of permanent exclusion. 

You will work with experienced Educational Psychologists (EPs) to support areas of work in both projects. Work will involve engaging with and delivering psychologically informed evidence-based interventions, as well as evaluating the success and impact of each project.

The Assistant Educational Psychology Team is one of three well establish teams within the Educational Psychology Service, working collaboratively alongside the Substantive Educational Psychology Team and the Extended Educational Psychology Team.

Assistant EPs work closely with a range of Educational Psychologists across the service, health and local authority colleagues to support the early identification of children and young people with special educational needs, deliver school training, and offer workshops to strengthen relationships with families. You will be familiar with the arrangements of primary and secondary schools and have had some prior knowledge of supporting disadvantaged pupils who have experienced adversity.

As an Assistant EP working in Central Bedfordshire, you will have opportunities to access a range of professional development activities (CPD), and be supported by a service which ringfences allocated time for CPD.

If you are committed working as an Assistant EP within a local authority context, dedicated to gaining the experience required to successfully secure a place on one of the doctoral training courses to become a fully qualified EP, keen to apply your knowledge of evidence-based interventions, psychological assessments, and research skills at an individual level as well as across the local authority, this post will be ideal for you.

We are building a locality model, placing psychology within community-based settings and value exploring opportunities to embed psychology within the communities we work in, to facilitate positive and powerful change for the children and young people we support.

By working in this post, you will:

• Have access to regular supervision from an Educational Psychologist.
• Be supported by a strong team of positive Educational Psychologists, as well as a team of dedicated Assistant Educational Psychologists.
• Contribute supportively to service delivery, through both statutory and non-statutory psychology services.
• Have access to weekly group supervision sessions and interest groups within the EPS.
• Engage in a professional development programme to support your career into the profession.
• Receive opportunities to work with a range of colleagues across the Children and Families Directorate to support your work.

To Apply

Upload an up-to-date CV & personal statement onto our on-line platform.

The personal statement should address the following areas:

• Relevant skills, experience, and qualifications suitable for the post.
• An understanding of how to apply psychology within a school setting, and in work with children, young people and their families.
• How this post will support your long-term professional development.

Our Offer 

We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page  

Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer.  We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process. 

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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack. 

Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack. 

For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: 

Crystal Elkabbas (Deputy Principal Educational Psychologist) at crystal.elkabbas@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 6964.

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Safeguarding:

Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and contractors to share this commitment. This post is subject to the disclosure of criminal records.  

To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.

Our National Careers Service team offer a free weekly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours.  Please book your place here.

More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council