Educational Psychologist

Soulbury Salary Scale A4-9 (plus up to 3 SPA discretionary points, existing SPAs will be honoured)

Location: Weymouth and Dorchester

Relocation scheme available up to £8000 for eligible appointments.

Are you looking to work within a thriving team, where you can make a difference every day, broadening and deepening your psychological skills?

Dorset Children’s Services is seeking to recruit a creative and innovative educational psychologist to its existing team of skilled and friendly staff.  Do you want to be part of a dynamic, supportive and highly respected group of educational psychologists? We are looking for educational psychologists who have an enthusiasm for applying psychology to make a difference for children and young people.  We are always interested in developing new practice and approaches and welcome applicants that can bring new practice to Dorset.

We are seeking applications from educational psychologists who are:  

Qualified educational psychologists registered with the HCPC and those in their final year of training. We would be interested in receiving applications from trainees currently in their 2nd year of training. We are currently seeking applicants for the Chesil (Weymouth) and Dorchester and West locality.

 We are seeking educational psychologists who:

• are compassionate
• take a restorative approach to building and developing relationships
• use solution focused thinking and approaches
• are person centred
• are committed to developing inclusive practice and developing belonging for CYP with SEND and other specific groups to improve equity
• are reflective and open to development of their own practice and that of their colleagues
• apply a strengths-based approach to working with children, young people, their families and education settings
• are creative and flexible in their approach
• can bring new and innovative ways of working to Dorset EPs and multidisciplinary working.

Dorset Council offers varied and rewarding work across a wide range of topics such as Relational Practice, emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), Therapeutic Thinking, ELSA and Autism in Schools to name a few.  We work with Children’s Services workforce development team to contribute to Children’s Services developments, multi-academy trusts (MATs) and schools … I could go on …  This is alongside completing psychological advice towards EHCNAs.   

About Dorset Children’s Services

‘Dorset Children Thrive’ is our locality model to deliver Children’s Services.  It brings together services and support for children and families into four integrated locality teams. The locality teams include Family help, Children’s Social Care, Educational Psychology, SEND and Inclusion services.  Through our integrated structure, colleagues work in multi-disciplinary integrated teams, educational psychologists are part of the Learning and Belonging strand within each locality.

About us

Dorset EPs provide

• psychological advice towards education, health and care needs assessments. We always take the approach that every interaction is an intervention
• a solution focused consultation-based approach to preventative work
• group supervision to ELSAs, and other colleagues in schools such as DSLs and staff groups across Children's Services such as the leaving care team
• link work to schools including joint consultation planning meetings working with our specialist teachers.
• training to EY providers, schools and FE providers and Children’s Services workforce
• critical incident and sad event support to schools and are the lead in working with schools and partners when such events happen
• strategic support and lead on approaches and interventions some of which have been mentioned above.
• work in collaboration with colleagues from Childrens Services and partner agencies including MHSTs and CAMHS
• support to the LA to use evidence-based practice to develop a continuum of provision

• Work for an LA which is leading the way in social care reform as one of the Families First Pathfinder LAs and received a positive outcome from the SEND Area Inspection March 2024
• Be highly regarded and respected by stakeholders and colleagues.
• Flexible working
• Soulbury terms and conditions
• Peer and management supervision
• Access to professional development and support and good ICT
• A beautiful mix of rural, town and coastal environments, The Jurassic Coast and Blue Flag beaches.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/children-families/sen-and-disability-local-offer/education-and-learning/services-to-help-support-your-child/educational-psychologists.aspx

If you would like to discuss the posts informally or visit the team please call or email:

Miriam Leigh, Principal Educational Psychologist 01305 228300 [email protected] or make contact with one of the senior educational psychologists on the Dorset Council webpage Educational psychologists - Dorset Council

Closing date 2nd February 2025

Interviews will be in-person on 10^th February 2025

Dorset Council: A great place to work

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits 
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based, and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.