Community health services in Northumberland
As well as making sure that there are enough GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians, Northumberland Care Trust is also responsible for providing a range of community services throughout the county such as Occupation Therapy, Children's Community Nurses etc.
Follow the link below to find out more about each of the community services, the referral criteria and what happens once you've been referred. Click on the service you are interested in to find out more about it
http://www.northumberlandcaretrust.nhs.uk/services/community-services
A ‘day' in the life of an educational psychologist
All our work aims to support children and young people to live and learn in their own families and communities, and to grow up and have successful adult lives. Alongside parents, carers and many other support services, we play our part by applying our skills and knowledge of psychology with a particular focus on education and learning.
Like everyone else, our practice is very influenced by the Every Child Matters agenda. Traditionally EPs did a lot of assessment of individual children's needs, but much of this is now carried out in schools and early years' settings. We continue to have close links with schools where we do a lot of our work, but also link more widely with families and other services in their communities. Now there is much more emphasis on inclusion - on preventing difficulties from happening in the first place, on ‘fixing' things in the environment that are barriers to children learning and growing up successfully, as well as ‘fixing' these skills that a child is finding more difficult to develop.
Today an EP in Northumberland is most likely to be working in a ‘consultative' way - to help to solve problems or to develop new ideas that will help children and young people to learn and live their lives to their full potential. This can be about a particular child (at any age or stage of their development), about groups of children, or where a school or other organization wants to make changes more generally with how they work. This is a very broad agenda and takes a bit of explaining!
• Our work will nearly always start with a ‘consultation' discussion with the key people who have the idea or the concern, such as a parents or carer, school or other staff , and (if it concerns them) the child or young person where ever possible too - to make a plan and agree what each of us will do
• We may offer to do any of a whole range of things, such as whole-school training, working with groups of staff to develop their practice, observation of a child or classroom teaching and feedback to the class teacher, visiting a parent or carer at home, working 1:1 with the child or young person, attend a future review, some research - what ever it takes!
• We also work ‘behind the scenes' to develop county-wide approaches to support children and young people, such as for children in care, migrant families, when critical incidents or bereavement occur, and much more.
What is the average EP's day like? There aren't two days the same as you will have gathered, but it could go something like this.....
8.30: Arrive at a mainstream school for a consultation with parents and school staff. Their 4 year old girl was very settled in nursery, but this term in Reception class, she appears quiet and sad, is making very small steps in learning literacy and numeracy skills, and is finding it much more difficult to make friends and join with other children despite lots of support. We share information and note situations and strategies that help her best and all agree new ways to support her both at home and school; I put dates in the diary to come back to observe in class and at playtime, and to develop further whole-class strategies with staff.
10.00: (arrive early for a home visit in nearby street, take the chance to make some quick phone calls in the car.) In this family, the boy is 21/2, he is full of curiosity and fun and is learning fast, but he was born with spina bifida. His continuing difficulties with learning to walk will be likely to make it harder for him to access all the activities in the nursery he is due to start. His mother and other support services want to apply for formal assessment of his special educational needs, and have asked for my opinion. We all play together on the floor, which enables me to assess his development, and exchange information. I agree to write a report to support their application.
11.30: (those emails just keep mounting - tackle a few but typing on the Blackberry phone is terribly slow!; drive to a high school).
12.00: a boy aged 15 years has found it very hard to settle since he arrived from middle school; his behaviour has become rude and aggressive and he frequently walks out of school which leads him into criminal activity in the community. He is now very vulnerable to permanent exclusion. As part of a plan of different strategies at home, at school and by his youth offending support worker, I have been asked to work with him to find out his views about his situation and what he thinks he needs for his adult life. He turns up, and takes part well in this informal but structured session; he has some ambitions and some good ideas about how to work toward them. He agrees to attend a review next week at school, where together we will share his ideas and make a plan with his mother and staff. If he doesn't turn up we will try again.
1.15: (sandwich in the car; check the emails; nothing that can't wait, I just need to check as we offer an immediate response service to school if there is a critical incident or bereavement which they want support for; drive to a middle school)
2.00: Give a short presentation to staff and governors about starting up a Nurture Group - a short-term support class for pupils who have additional social or emotional needs. We discuss the principles of the approach and what it would take to start one, and plan of a number of ways to progress this idea; I agree to help them to evaluate their progress and how effective the group is.
3.30: Back in the office; sort out the notes from the day's visits; check that I have noted all the commitments I have made in my diary; check through the post, and have another go at those emails.
4.30: Meeting with EPs who all work in my Area Team; catch up and share information; plan some training we are going to put on for all schools in our area.
5.30: Check the diary for tomorrow; pack the bag for the different files and equipment required (not forgetting the Blackberry!); home!
