Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist

Post: Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist

37 hours per week.

Soulbury B (3-6) plus 3 SPAs (permanent contract) and a welcome payment

We are looking to recruit to a brand new Specialist Senior EP role in Telford & Wrekin’s expanding EP team. Alongside a clearly-boundaried approach to supporting the delivery of consultation-based traded and statutory commitments (0.6 FTE), you will be enabled to take a lead strategic role in the delivery of Educational Psychology Services relating to a designated specialism. The role would be ideally placed for an experienced maingrade or senior/specialist practitioner EP wishing to evolve their career.

Joining the Telford EP team, you will be supported to represent the service and promote applied educational psychology in your specialist area. Potential areas for development and exploration include (but are not limited to) neurodiversity, Youth Justice, work with our Virtual School, Preparation for Adulthood and Early Years. We will ask you to engage with strategic and operational meetings relevant to your area of specialism, and to work closely with, and advise, other individual professionals, key services or groups of practitioners associated with your area of specialism, in order to coordinate multidisciplinary responses to local and national developments. We will support you to promote the development of good practice in our schools and communities in relation to your area of specialism.

Our team operates within the framework of a consultation model with an emphasis on solution-focused, person-centred and strengths-based practice. Our traded work with schools is varied and we have extended the EPS into the community through exciting working partnerships with Health and Social Care, enabling us to offer community-based psychology with families through our award-winning collaboration with our Parent Carer Forum ‘Parents Opening Doors’. As a team, we actively seek new and innovative ways of working to support young people and their families. We continue to lead on the ELSA initiative, and are committed to whole school wellbeing practices through implementation of the Sandwell Wellbeing Charter Mark.

As the ideal candidate you will:

• Be an experienced EP registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Demonstrate commitment to promoting inclusion through your work with children, families, schools and other professionals.
• Bring your passion for applied psychology in your specialist area and positive commitment to influence the wider system.
• Work well in collaboration with the wider EP team, embracing consultation as our main approach to service delivery.

In return, we offer:

• A strong and highly regarded EPS which provides opportunities for varied types of work.
• A Council whose Children’s Services were graded Outstanding in the most recent Ofsted Inspection.
• Outstanding team support.
• A well balanced approach to office and home working, enabling flexibility alongside extensive opportunity for relationship building and peer supervision and support.
• A culture that prioritises a healthy work/life balance through flexible working arrangements, forward-thinking IT solutions and well-managed workloads.
• A rich range of continuous professional development opportunities, informed by the aspirations of the team.
• Regular one-to-one supervision, and opportunities for case discussion and peer support (including an enhanced supervision and induction programme for newly qualified EPs).
• The opportunity to participate in service development and transformation in a rapidly changing environment.
• Generous local government pension.
• Expenses including travel and HCPC registration fees.

We aspire for EP colleagues to join us, stay and grow both our service and your career. To this end, Telford & Wrekin is offering a welcome payment of £5,000, with the first £3,000 payable on joining our team, and £2,000 at the beginning of your third year of service.

For informal enquiries, please contact Co-Principal EPs Dr Meryl Newton meryl.newton@telford.gov.uk or Dr Jane Park jane.park@telford.gov.uk.

Closing date: 28/04/2025

Interview date: 06/05/2025

Please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification.

At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice.

Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check. It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups.

We value our employees and offer staff rewards and plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression including:

• Competitive rates of pay.
• Automatic access to a secure, flexible and tax efficient Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Staff benefits and discounts including salary sacrifice schemes.
• Free on-site parking.
• Generous leave entitlement (24 days rising to 32 days) plus 8 bank holidays and an additional concessionary day.
• Free access to our employee assistance programme and confidential counselling.
• Flexible and mobile working policy - we are well adapted to a hybrid model of working which includes a combination of time spent in the office and at home – our approach is to promote greater level of flexible working around personal and family commitments.

Sorry but CVs will not be accepted.

Please note that Telford & Wrekin Council do not hold a sponsorship licence for visas.

Attached documents
Specialist Senior EP JDPS March 2025.pdf