Lisa Cameron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to (a) primary and (b) secondary school children requiring educational psychology services in each of the next five years; and how much such support will be made available during each of the next five years.

Edward Timpson

The responsibility for educational psychology training and services is devolved. This response relates to the current position in England.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there is a sufficient supply of educational psychologists to deliver their statutory responsibilities. This includes the local authorities’ statutory duties in primary and secondary schools for assessing, monitoring and reviewing children with special educational needs.

The Department works in partnership with local educational psychology services in the private and public sector to ensure a steady flow of educational psychologists to the workforce. As part of our assessment of the implications of the Children and Families Act 2014, the government has increased the number of funded educational psychology training places by 25% in response to the needs of educational psychology services. The cost of this training is shared with local educational psychology services. The Department contribution comes to £20,188,857 over the next five years.