Careers in educational psychology

Find out about careers in educational psychology.

We are looking for skilled professionals to join our educational psychology team.

About us

We are an incredibly friendly and supportive team of 25 experienced educational psychologists (EPs) who work well together to support schools and settings, children, young people and families throughout West Sussex. In addition to our 25 EPs, we host trainee educational psychologists and will have two trainees on placements with us in 2018/19.

There are four area teams - two based in Worthing and two in Horsham.

We have a small chargeable service which enables us to offer a range of support to schools and other settings, including consultation and training. This is a new addition to our service and, as such, team members play a very active role in developing and shaping it.

The portage service is also a part of our provision and gives our EPs the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in this area.

Why work for us

Pay

We pay on the Soulbury Educational Psychologist scale. Our salary scale for main grade EPs is Soulbury Scale A 1-6, which is currently equivalent to £38,197-£47,889, plus up to 3 Structured Professional Assessment points.

Benefits

Educational psychologists benefits

Annual leave of up to 31 days, plus the ability to buy additional annual leave.
Excellent local government pension scheme.
Flexible and mobile working opportunities supported by our technology, which allow our educational psychologists to optimise work schedules and encourage a healthy work/life balance. Many of our team work reduced or compressed hours to support their commitments outside of work.
Excellent learning and development opportunities.
Continuous professional development, peer support and supervision is much valued within the service and considered as fundamental to our values and team approach.
Fantastic support for you and your family, including childcare vouchers*, career breaks and access to health and financial wellbeing schemes and benefits.
Access to a wide range of discounts in areas such as:
- groceries
- travel
- cinema tickets
- days out
- leisure activities
- high street retailers
- the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform.
A range of commuting and business travel discounts and initiatives.

Find out why West Sussex is a great place to live and work

*The Childcare Vouchers scheme is now closed to new entrants, however the Tax-Free Childcare scheme (GOV.UK) is available.

Learning and development

We use team time to listen to and share with one another, and to learn to support our work as applied psychologists.

We have three full service days per year to further support this. Two of these annual days are organised and planned by area educational psychologist (EPs) teams to reflect relevant areas of interest and development within the teams.

Recent team days have involved external speakers in the areas of supporting LGBTQ students, bereavement support and wellbeing.

The third annual day is organised and presented by the EPs Senior Management Team to focus upon service and local authority developments.

What to expect

Our educational psychology (EP) teams are based in Horsham and Worthing. Each area team is managed by a senior educational psychologist and all team members receive regular supervision, as well as peer supervision opportunities.
You will be given a laptop, iPad and/or iPhone, giving you access to your emails/calendar when you’re away from the office.
You will undertake planned meetings with a number of schools and educational settings, for which you will be the main contact.
Statutory work is allocated through area team meetings and will be generally undertaken by the EP who knows the young person and/or school.
Within the team there are opportunities to undertake a variety of other work, including supervision of portage home visitors and work with other local authority teams, such as the Virtual School for Children Looked After (VSCLA) and the Fostering and Adoption Service.

Current vacancies

View and apply for job vacancies

We are always interested to hear from experienced EPs, including those who are looking to relocate and those interested in locum work

We are keen to hear from trainee educational psychologists in their final year of training.

We are proud of the service that we provide to children, young people and their families in West Sussex. We are always happy to have phone or email conversations about the work we do and the vacancies we have, as well as welcoming visits to our service.