Educational Psychology Service

Enfield Educational Psychology Service (EPS) is the main provider of psychological services to Enfield schools. We have direct links with services in education, health and social care, which promotes a coordinated approach.

EPs are HCPC-regulated applied psychologists. We support inclusion through:

1. Psychological application of critical thinking skills

We use psychology to support school staff in improving teaching and support for children. By helping staff reflect on their practice, we enable them to make changes that not only benefit children but also make their own work more effective and rewarding. We offer practical strategies based on research and experience that fit into everyday school life. We also help staff manage stress, make sense of behaviour, and build stronger relationships with children, parents, carers and colleagues. This creates a more positive and inclusive environment for everyone in school.
 

1. Psychological application of implementation science

We help bridge the gap between research and everyday school practice by making sure interventions and policies are practical, relevant, and sustainable. We work closely with staff, children and families to understand what works and why, and to make sense of what’s not working, and why not. We use real-life experiences to guide decisions. Our approach ensures that everyone feels heard and involved, making changes more meaningful and easier to implement. We use clear, jargon-free language to explain our thinking, helping staff feel confident and informed. This way, we support schools in creating solutions that meet all children’s needs and improve outcomes for everyone.
 

1. Psychological safety

We help school staff feel emotionally supported, especially during times of change, stress, or crisis. In every interaction, we create safe spaces for staff, parents, carers and children to make sense and meaning of their experiences, without judgement. This helps reduce stress, improve wellbeing, and build resilience in the face of challenges like caregiver burnout, compassion fatigue and moral injury. By doing this, we strengthen safeguarding practices and foster an attuned and responsive school environment.

The EPS applies psychology in five different ways:

Consultation: We bring our psychological skills to meetings with parents, carers and school staff, helping to make sense of concerns and find solutions together. This improves the assess-plan-do-review process for children.

Assessment: We work directly with children and young people to understand more about their learning and wellbeing, and what the children themselves think and want.

Intervention: As well as providing individual and group interventions ourselves, we offer guidance, training and implementation support for staff, parents and carers for a wide range of interventions, drawing on evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence.

Training: We support staff development through training, supervision and reflective practice. We support parents’ and carers’ knowledge, understanding and confidence in SEND by facilitating workshops and coffee mornings, and delivering parenting programmes.

The EPS delivers this work at different levels: for individual children and young people; groups of children and young people; family work; staff development work; whole school initiatives such as projects and policy development.

How we work with you

We work with you to identify your priorities for each term, and to agree the way we will work together. This planning time will need to be factored into your purchasing. Our Service Level Agreement sets out our commitments to you, and our agreed working practices. We also have flyers about the role of the EP and what to expect of EP involvement for individual children.

Supervision & Reflective Spaces

Aims of supervision

We recognise that meeting the special educational and emotional needs of children in schools is hard. Supervision is becoming increasingly important in meeting the needs of staff, so that they can meet the needs of children and their families.

At its heart, supervision provides a non-judgemental, confidential space to think, reflect, and process the emotional impact of the work. It is part of a trauma-informed working practice within schools which promotes psychological safety and caregiver affect management. Although it is not a substitute for therapy, it does allow protected time for staff to deepen their professional understanding and wellbeing in service of the children and families they work with. Sessions are not directive; rather, they are responsive to the needs of the supervisee’s role, priorities and culture. The ultimate aim is to help staff make informed decisions, feel emotionally supported, and maintain resilience in their work.

Our Supervision Offer

Individual Supervision

• Who: Any members of staff within a school. It is particularly beneficial for leaders, early career teachers, staff with a high level of need in their class or those with responsibility for specific areas such as safeguarding.
• Format: Nine sessions across the academic year.
• Session Length: First and last sessions are 1.5 hours (to allow for contracting and review); all other sessions are 1 hour.
• Delivery: First and last sessions are in person; all other sessions are delivered online for flexibility.

Group Supervision or specialist group supervision for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) and School Leaders

• Who: Groups of 6–8 staff, including a specialist group for DSLs and a group for headteachers and deputy headteachers from different school communities. The group will only run if there is a minimum of 4 participants, with a maximum group size of 8.
• Format: Nine sessions per year.
• Session Length: First and last sessions are 2 hours (to allow for contracting and review); all other sessions are 1.5 hours.
• Delivery: First and last sessions are in person; all other sessions are online.

Additional Options

• We can tailor supervision packages to meet the unique needs of your school, including bespoke groups, additional sessions, or themed supervision (e.g., for SENCOs, pastoral teams, or wellbeing leads). Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
• We can consider requests for within-year short support for 3 sessions. This would be individual or group supervision in certain situations. For example for members of staff returning to work after a period of absence, members of staff who need extra support following a particular difficult life or work circumstance or members of staff needing a short series of sessions to think about a specific area of their work.

All sessions are provided by qualified or trainee Educational Psychologists, who receive their own supervision.

EPS traded day charges

Supervision charges

Impact of the EPS

The EPS evaluates all of our work, using parent/carer and school surveys and other approaches. You can read a full evaluation of the impact of each aspect of our work in our Annual Report on our website.

What our schools say:

Both our EP and trainee EP have been highly effective in supporting us to plan and make provision for our pupils with SEND. This has enabled us to ensure they have received what they need to be able to make great progress from their starting points.

EP input has also been helpful in facilitating conversations with parents and carers, helping them to understand their child's needs and reassuring them about planning for the future.

Our EPs have been amazing at continuously supporting us to have solution-focussed conversations about our children and inclusive provision generally as a federation. They always have lots of good, innovative ideas about different types of support.

Our EP has a high level of expertise and has been very supportive.

Impact of supervision of class teachers… more awareness and accountability, supportive discussion leading to improved practice and students' wellbeing.

The EP reports have been a vital resource for teachers, offering clear strategies and practical recommendations on how to effectively support students in the classroom. This has enhanced staff confidence and consistency in applying appropriate interventions.

Both EPs are highly efficient, approachable and have an excellent understanding of the school context and challenges faced by me as the SENCo; this has been brilliantly supportive in helping me within my role.

What our parents/carers say:

We are deeply grateful for the time, care, and attention to detail you have devoted to this work. Your dedication to keeping our child at the heart of the report is evident, and it means a great deal to us.

I'd like to say a huge thanks to the EP. She was very kind, attentive and understanding.

Thank you to your service, All of you have been wonderful with helping and sorting this out, you all deserve to know that.

The recommendations you set out in your report were brilliant and exactly match the needs of of my child. Thank you.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you, for all your fantastic work at the event today… It really makes a big difference to parents to feel that their concerns and challenges are listened to and that they get opportunities to work with professionals to try to resolve issues and learn more about what support is available for them and their children.

(Our Voice conference for parents of children with SEND)

Educational psychology work that is not charged to schools:

The EPS also offers some services which are commissioned by the Local Authority – there are no additional charges to schools for these services:

• Providing psychological advice as part of a child or young person’s (statutory) Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.
• Enfield’s Trauma Informed Practice in Schools & Settings (ETIPSS) is led by the EPS and delivered by the partnership. Email e-tipss@enfield.gov.uk to enquire about training and implementation support.
• Offering a rapid response to school leadership teams to support them in helping their school community following a critical incident or sad event. Please see our website for our critical incident response protocol, and e-mail eps@enfield.gov.uk to access this help. 
• EPS involvement through other multi-disciplinary teams i.e. EASA, SWERRL, Youth Justice Service, Virtual School for LAC/CiN/CP, and My Young Mind Enfield (MYME). This work tends not to involve individual casework.