Senior Educational Psychologist

BCP Council; Christchurch; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

BCP Council's educational psychology service is looking for an experienced Educational Psychologist to lead and shape our leadership and practice. Senior EPs will guide EPs and Assistant EPs, contribute to strategic planning and service development, and respond creatively to emerging needs across schools and families.

You will lead projects, develop innovative practice, and share psychological thinking across Children's Services, driving earlier intervention and improved outcomes for children

Qualifications

• Qualified EP with eligibility for PEPS registration.
• Experience leading teams of EPs and managing projects.
• Strong strategic planning, assessment, and consultation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop EPs and Assistant EPs across schools and families.
• Contribute to service planning and development for Children’s Services.
• Lead projects and evaluate innovative practice in educational psychology.
• Collaborate with schools, families and partner services to improve outcomes for children with SEND.

Skills

Educational Psychology

Leadership

Strategic planning

Team development

Interpersonal skills

Education

Qualified Educational Psychologist

Tools

Assessment tools

Job description

Are you an experienced Educational Psychologist ready to take your next step into leadership, or a Senior EP looking for a new challenge?

This is an exciting time to join our service.

Through our Experts at Hand programme, we are developing cluster-based ways of working that bring professionals together around children, families and schools. Alongside wider SEND reforms, this is an opportunity to help shape how Educational Psychology contributes to earlier intervention, inclusion and improved outcomes.

Lead, develop and influence

Our belief is simple: when we understand a child or young person better, we are better placed to make a difference.

We want our Senior EPs to help create the conditions in which excellent psychology can flourish.

You will lead and support EPs and Assistant EPs, contribute to strategic planning and service development, and help us respond creatively to emerging needs across schools, families and the Local Authority.

You will have opportunities to lead projects, develop and evaluate innovative practice, and contribute psychological thinking across Children's Services. We want to be an outward-facing service: learning from excellent practice elsewhere, developing our own approaches and sharing what we learn.

A message from our Interim Principal Educational Psychologist

I am committed to supporting our Senior EPs to develop as leaders. I value a collaborative leadership approach, where we identify challenges together, draw on our collective expertise and take shared responsibility for finding solutions.

Our Senior EPs have an important role in enabling EPs to flourish - supporting their professional development, encouraging excellent applications of psychology and creating a positive and rewarding working environment.

I want our Senior EPs to feel confident in taking on new challenges, developing ideas and leading innovation. We value openness, reflection and learning from experience, alongside the professional courage to question established approaches and consider how we might do things differently.

If this reflects the kind of leadership culture in which you would like to develop and contribute, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

If you are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and young people with SEND, and possess the skills and experience required, we are looking for an experienced Senior Educational Psychologist, or an experienced Educational Psychologist ready to step up into a new role, with good interpersonal and communication skills with energy and drive to take on new and exciting challenges connected to innovative service deliveries and to help shape the service going forward.

Do you enjoy working collaboratively, compassionately and creatively to apply psychology to improve outcomes for children and young people? Do you enjoy