In Milton Keynes, the Educational Psychology Service engages in a range of preventative and early intervention work as part of the SEND Support Offer. We are committed to ensuring that there is equity of access to educational psychology involvement, and that children and young people can access the support they need from the most appropriate SEND Team at the right time.

• SEND Support leaflet

The Educational Psychology Service’s SEND Support Offer includes: 

A Psychological Consultation Service where staff in educational settings can book a slot with a psychologist to explore an issue or concern, with the aim of finding some useful ways forward.

• Psychological consultation service factsheet

Direct requests for involvement*

(other than the Psychological Consultation Service) from schools, settings and other professionals. For example, broader requests for involvement including psychological assessment work, multi-professional working, project work, evaluations and training.

The Educational Psychology Service will only become involved where psychology involvement is considered necessary and appropriate. We will prioritise requests for individual involvement where a child or young person meets one or more of the following vulnerability criteria:

• is a Looked After child, otherwise under Children’s Social Care or adopted/under Special Guardianship
• is at risk of school or social exclusion
• is out of a setting
• further vulnerability factors are present - for example, young carers, refugees, asylum seeker families, traveller communities
• AND The child’s needs are complex and not well understood

We would ask that if the request does not meet the above criteria, schools consider utilising other services.

Educational Psychology assessment is not a single approach, package or tool. For more information on Educational Psychology assessment, please see our guide: Educational Psychology Assessment guide 

*Please note that requests will be considered at a fortnightly SEND Team discussion forum where, depending on the request, the most appropriate team or teams will be identified to offer support.

Training and workshops delivered as part of the wider SEND Team Centralised Training offer. For available sessions, please see the SEND Team Centralised Training 2022-23.

Involvement with children with Education, Health and Care plans via requests from the EHC Review Team Manager and other SEND managers.

Project work. Educational Psychologists lead and contribute to a wide range of project work across the Local Authority. This includes developing good practice guidance on different topics, contributing to working groups, and delivering short-term focused interventions. For information about current projects please visit the Educational Psychology Service Projects and Events.

Please contact the SEND support line for more information or support. 

As Educational Psychologists, we have a statutory responsibility to contribute psychological advice as part of the Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment process.

A typical assessment will involve the Educational Psychologist speaking with the child or young person, their parent or carer and other professionals such as teachers. They may also carry out observations of the child and young person in their educational context and use a range of assessment tools to build a clear picture of the child or young person’s needs.

As part of the current co-production pilot in Milton Keynes, when an EHC Plan has been agreed, Educational Psychologists will attend planning meeting to work with others to co-produce outcomes and provision.

Critical incidents - schools and settings

Guidance for schools and settings 

• Guidance on critical incidents: using your Educational Psychology Service
• Support for schools following a critical incident: summary 
• Helping children and young people cope when someone has died
• Supporting children and young people after a frightening event - leaflet for schools
• Supporting children after a frightening event - leaflet for parents
• Responding in the event of a young person's suspected suicide
• Planning for a sad event for schools: guidance for schools

Other useful resources

• Critical incidents resources
• Samaritans: suspected suicide in schools and colleges
• Papyrus: building suicide-safer schools and colleges
• Papyrus: #Save the class
• Talking to children about terrorism and war
• Helping children deal with fears and anxiety about war and terrorism
• Ukraine: 5 ways to talk to children about conflict
• Supporting children to manage anxiety over war, conflict and crises 
• Advice if you’re upset by the news 
• ASD and supporting your child with the war in Ukraine

New Traumatic bereavement resources from the UK Trauma Council

In a traumatic bereavement, how the child or the young person experiences or understands the death – the meaning they make of it – results in it being experienced as traumatic.

The UK Trauma Council (UKTC), hosted and supported by the Anna Freud Centre, has collaborated with leading bereavement charities, Child Bereavement UK, Winston’s Wish and the Childhood Bereavement Network, to create a new portfolio of resources on traumatic bereavement.

This new portfolio of free, evidence-based resources is for school staff, bereavement services and NHS mental health services, and include:

• Resources for schools and colleges: featuring a comprehensive written guide with supporting tools including videos, plus a 4-minute animation
• Clinical resources: featuring an extensive practice guide and supporting videos to support those working therapeutically with children and young people

Visit the UK Trauma Council website to access the resources.

In Milton Keynes we are seeing an increase in children and young people experiencing difficulty in attending school due to emotional reasons, like anxiety.

This led to the development of an EBSA Project group in Milton Keynes. 

For information, training and resources related to EBSA, please see our new dedicated page Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) page.

The Educational Psychology Service offers Coaching Conversations for School/Setting Staff in Milton Keynes as part of our Coaching Project.

Coaching Conversations provide an opportunity for staff to talk about aspects of their professional situation with a view to supporting well-being and/or development. The aim is to provide staff with a confidential, non-judgmental sounding board whilst helping to find clarity and direction. For information about what coaching is see our Coaching Video.

For details of our current offer of coaching, please see our Coaching Leaflet.

Wellbeing for Education Recovery 2021-2022

The Wellbeing for Education Recovery (WfER) project is intended to build upon the work of the Wellbeing for Education Return project from the academic year 2020-21 (details below).

The project is focused on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, through targeting areas of local priority. This includes helping local schools and colleges navigate existing local support, as well as providing ongoing support, training and advice. In Milton Keynes, the project continues to be led by the Educational Psychology Service and includes the following activities:

• development of local joined-up support for Emotionally Based School Avoidance in Milton Keynes, including resources and training for parents and schools (project overview below) Emotionally Based School Avoidance project 
• drawing together useful sources of support, information, training and resources for schools School Wellbeing and Resilience - Information for Schools 
• a new coaching supervision offer to school staff (Spring Term) Coaching Conversations Offer

What is coaching?

• a limited offer of 1:1 or group anxiety intervention work for children and young people in schools (spring term) Anxiety Intervention Offer 

Wellbeing for Education Recovery 2020-2021

The Wellbeing for Education Return Project was a national package of training and resources designed to support education staff in promoting the emotional wellbeing, resilience and mental health of children and young people, parents/carers and teachers in the context of the covid pandemic. The project ran throughout the academic 2020-21.

In Milton Keynes the project was led by the Educational Psychology Service in collaboration with colleagues across education, SEND, health and the charity sector. The project comprised the following:

• webinar training sessions for school staff on the topic of whole school resilience, and bereavement and loss
• locally developed information summaries on the support and resources available on the following key topics: anxiety and staff wellbeing
• webinar sessions on the topic of staff wellbeing
• a professional supervision offer for education staff
• a webinar session for parents on the topic of bereavement and loss during the pandemic

Resources

The following provide information and/or links to useful national resources, and those developed as part of the projects:

• Wellbeing for Education Return Project overview 

A visual overview of the 2 phases within the project including the offer and key resources.

• Training Feedback Visual 

A visual showing the feedback received from attendees of the three webinars offered over the two phases of our project.

• Wellbeing for education return webinar one notes - developing whole school resiliency 

Keynotes from the first webinar around whole school resiliency, outlining key concepts discussed.

• Wellbeing for education return webinar two notes - bereavement and loss

Keynotes from the second webinar around bereavement and loss, outlining key concepts discussed.

• Anxiety support for children and young people 

A poster and information sheet outlining support for children and young people, including local training, interventions, resources and further signposting.

• Staff Wellbeing support

A poster and information sheet outlining support for staff wellbeing, including local training, professional supervision offer and local and national resources.

• Extra resources, websites and links focusing of staff wellbeing support 
• Public Health England - resources for school staff wellbeing

A list of resources to support staff wellbeing, released by Public Health England.

• Public Health England’s online training: Psychological Fist Aid

An online course for those supporting children and young people affected by Covid-19. Those completing the training will be equipped to better identify those children that are in distress and provide support to help them feel safe, connected and able to take steps to help themselves during the pandemic or other crisis situations.

• LIPs story board
• Language Intervention Programme

• WEE and LLTF story board