Scoping the Profession: Evidence of changing times for educational psychology, 2002 to 2006

Abstract

This paper describes two surveys of how Educational Psychology services in the UK were responding to Government initiatives. The first was conducted in 2002 and the follow-up in 2006. This paper reports how Principal Educational Psychologists and Services were reacting to different funding streams. The authors endeavoured to find out the impact of such changes upon the structure of services, posts created, and in general the changing shape of the Educational Psychology profession. The initial questionnaire was sent to 174 Local Authority PEPs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a response rate of 55 per cent. The results confirmed that the shape of services was indeed subject to significant change. A follow-up opportunistic survey of 13 Services was carried out in July, 2006, which indicated significant variation in practice among services and continuing change.