Careers in educational psychology

We are an incredibly friendly and supportive team of 33 educational psychologists (EPs) who work well together to support schools and settings, children, young people and families throughout West Sussex. In addition to our 33 EPs, we currently have two assistant psychologists and will have two trainees on placements with us in 2022/23.

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

The EPS is an integral part of the West Sussex SEND and Inclusion service and supports the delivery of the Local Authority’s wellbeing strategy and Special Educational Needs and Disability strategy across educational settings, children, young people and families throughout West Sussex. The EPS directly oversees the Portage Service and the Mental Health Support Teams in schools, with Education Psychologists playing an important role in both.

We have a growing chargeable service focussed on wellbeing which enables us to offer a range of evidence-based support to schools and other settings. This includes person-centred approaches, group supervision, consultation and training.

We have a well-developed Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme and lead on the county wide Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) support. In addition, EPs contribute to other services such as our Virtual School, adoption and fostering teams, a specialist CAMHS service and play an important role in our Mental Health Support Teams in Schools.

• 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.
• You will be given a laptop, iPad and/or smart phone giving you access to your emails/calendar when you’re away from the office.
• There will be a full induction package to familiarise yourself with the service and county.
• 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 ensuring equity in workload.
• 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, the Fostering and Adoption Service and Mental Health Support Teams in Schools.

• 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 towards the end of their second year or 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.