Data reveals untapped educational psychologist pipeline

Almost nine in 10 applicants for state-funded training to become educational psychologists are now turned away, revealing a potential untapped pipeline for ministers’ “experts at hand” service.

Figures seen by Schools Week show 1,766 people applied for just 204 spaces on courses at universities across England – a success rate of 12 per cent.

This compares with 1,169 for 203 places in 2021, an increase in applicants of 50 per cent.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) warned last month the chronic shortage of psychologists (EPs) put the new £1.8 billion “experts-at-hand” service “at risk”.

Funding more training places could help ease pressures, but experts warn of a “catch-22” with more capacity in the system needed in the first place to support them.

EPs play a fundamental role in assessing the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities for educational, health and care plans (EHCPs).

But under the new system it’s hoped they can do more early intervention in schools.

Jo Hutchinson, EPI’s SEND director, said: “It feels a bit like what we are going to end up with is that government is expecting a sort of ‘big bang’ of things actually happening in 2028-29.

“But it doesn’t look like they are going to have laid the groundwork to have any more EPs.”

Under the terms of the funded training provision, the Department for Education pays for all three years of university fees, across 12 universities.

It also covers the first year of living costs, such as a salary or bursary, while the placement council covers the remaining two years. It is unusual for a student to self-fund their own place, but the option is there in some areas.

Strict requirements

The Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) runs the application system and has charted a rapid rise in interest in recent years.

There are stringent eligibility requirements, including a psychology degree and gaining a minimum of one year’s full-time experience working with children in specific sectors.

Donna Wiggett, the AEP’s general secretary, believed psychology had become a popular course at undergraduate level and had an “interesting” career trajectory.

Kevin Woods, director of the doctorate in educational and child psychology at the Manchester Institute of Education, said the spike in applications “appears to be as a result of the post-graduation support available to this particular career route, together with the range and availability of post-graduation employment opportunities”.

But just expanding course numbers isn’t a quick fix.

The EPI said a meaningful expansion would require more university capacity, more schools and councils offering supervised training placements and a phased implementation.

Woods said the training route, like teachers, required “specialist input from practitioners, both directly to university teaching and as supervisions within practice placements.

“This requirement, in turn, reduces capacity within the psychological services – it’s something of a ‘catch-22’. So, primarily, expansion in numbers of trainee educational psychologists has to progress within the limits of the qualified professional workforce.”

He added that because councils were required to cover two years of funding, any expansion “has to progress within the limits” of council workforce and budgeting.

EPI’s research report found that to bring all councils up to a sufficient “benchmark” level of staffing would require an extra 1,400 full-time equivalent EPs – a 40 per cent increase, costing £140 million.

Retention ‘the most urgent challenge’

But the report also warned that a quarter of serving EPs considered leaving or changing their employment model in recent years.

If 10 per cent left each year, gross recruitment must replace leavers before achieving any net growth “making retention the most urgent workforce challenge”, EPI said.

In the small sample researchers interviewed, they said the “narrow job roles” ruled by the “dominance” of statutory assessments for EHCPs led to EPs leaving council services to “seek more holistic roles”. This included in other councils or privately.

Georgia Gould, the schools minister, previously issued a rallying cry for expert SEND professionals who quit their jobs to return and staff the new experts at hand service, which would allow them to do more early intervention and be out in classrooms.

Wiggett said EPs “want to be out in schools, delivering the intervention and staff training”.

“You can’t just deliver a one-off training and go that’s your training on SEND for the year. You have to keep going back into the schools.”

But Hutchinson said staff coming back into direct council employment “may not fully solve the problem”.

“Those private practitioners are often on contracts to councils or schools, so they are already part of the workforce in some sense.

“They are just doing it through a different route that’s been more possible for them to shape the role and the job in the way they want to do.”

Councils making use of trainees

The DfE said, in a freedom of information response, that in 2020, 192 trainees finished their degree. But it dropped to 188 and 171 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

The department said some trainees “may have delayed completion due to unavoidable circumstances such as parental leave or sickness absence”.

Of those that had finished, all were working as EPs.

Many trainee EPs may have served as assistant EPs (AEPs), psychology graduates who are employed to work alongside an EP with supervision.

Joanna Stanbridge, an principal EP, said: “What lots of councils are doing is trying to drive up workforce capacity in the system with assistant EPs. They work with very heavily structured supervision.

“It’s a pragmatic way forward and lots of AEPs got into training as an EP because of that role, as they need the year’s experience of working with children.”

The DfE said the department had committed to training at least 200 EPs a year from 2026 and 2027, backed by £26 million.

The initial investment would be followed by additional funding from 2028 to “train more EPs than we currently do, subject to future spending review”.

“We recognise the importance of our specialist workforce and that’s why we have announced a long-term commitment to growing the EP workforce – strengthening local authority workforce capacity and ensuring more trained workers in the years to come.”