LIVERPOOL EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (ADMIN) SERVICE

							                 LIVERPOOL EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
                         SERVICE STANDARDS

Aim

    To ensure that the Educational Psychology Service is able to deliver
     Liverpool City Council’s strategic aims and objectives as identified in
     the SEN and disability business plan.
    To provide a quality psychological service to the children, young
     people, families and schools of Liverpool.

Accountability

 All staff are responsible and accountable for their own professional actions.
However, it is the role of the service’s senior management team to ensure
that all staff have access to the necessary resources and professional
development opportunities to maximise both their professional competency
and efficiency.

Currently the service’s senior management team quality assures the work of
all staff through:

   -   Developing sensitive and sensible management systems to facilitate
       and support staff actions
   -   Providing individual Educational Psychologists with regular access to
       professional supervision
   -   Ensuring all team members (both admin officers and Educational
       Psychologists) have regular access to the Council’s KITS and PRD
       processes.

These processes (described above) will support the services senior
management team to work in partnership with individual team members in
order to identify all training and development needs. These needs will then
be documented via the service’s training plan. It is envisaged that these
processes will maximise individual performance, thus supporting all staff (both
admin and educational psychologists) to offer the best quality services to our
range of stake holders.

Service delivery – External processes

      The Educational Psychology Service is centrally funded. Management
       responsibility for the smooth running of the service lies with the
       Principal Educational Psychologist.

      The service is organised to reflect the Local Authorities localisation of
       services agenda. A senior educational psychologist co-ordinates
       psychological delivery in each of the city’s five neighbourhoods.
       Currently each senior psychologist has responsibility for the line
       management of staff working within their neighbourhood and for the
       quality assurance of the psychological services offered within it. In
       doing so educational psychologists ensure that they:

   - strive to work effectively with other partner agencies;
   - are committed to facilitating the best possible outcomes for children and
      young people.
   - are committed to ensuring that the Local Authority resources for children
   and young people are equitably distributed, allocated in accordance to
   need, and used to best effect.

      Parents, schools and other agencies are able to contact the Service by
       telephone, letter and E-mail for information or advice. The office is
       open from 8.30 a.m. – 4.45 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 8.30 a.m. –
       4.15 p.m. on Fridays. The service operates over 52 weeks of the year,
       excluding statutory holidays.

Quality assurance - Internal processes

Sickness and Absence

Rationale
   The procedure for reporting sickness follows the council policy for
   managing sickness and absence.

Standards
    Staff are requested to contact the PEP if they are too unwell to attend
      work. In the event that the PEP is unavoidable staff must contact their
      immediate line manager. All managers must clarify whether staff
      appointments need to be cancelled and ensure that the relevant
      authorities are informed.
    If a member of staff is off work sick for more than one working week it
      is the Council’s policy that they should be contacted by their line
      manager on a weekly basis. The purpose of this contact is to maintain
      relationships and ensure that (when appropriate) the employee is
      supported to make a smooth transition back to work.
    A back to work interview is held on the first day of the employees return
      to work. Again, the focus of this meeting is to ensure that the employee
      is fit to resume their duties and identify whether additional management
      support is required to promote their continued attendance in work.
    A sickness review is held if an employee reaches any of the trigger
      points regarding absence as set out in the Council’s “Creating an
      Attendance Culture” policy. This is available on the Council Intranet
    Non urgent medical and dental appointments should be taken at the
      beginning or end of the working day whenever possible. These and all
      other hospital appointments should be discussed with the individual’s
      line manager in advance.
Taking of Leave

Rationale
Requests for leave are considered in line with the exigencies of the service.

Standards
    Annual leave should be booked in advance and must be authorised by
      the individual’s line manager. Requests for leave are to be made via
      email using individual’s electronic leave cards. Following authorisation
      the electronic leave card will be adjusted and a copy sent to the
      member of staff. All requests for annual leave must reflect the notice
      periods as identified in the council’s policies and procedures.

Complaints

All members of the service work hard to offer stakeholders the best quality
services. However, in the eventuality that people feel unhappy or dissatisfied
with the service they have received they are invited to contact the Principal
Educational Psychologist. All complaints will then be directed to the relevant
individual’s line manager who will discuss them with the appropriate individual
and agree a resolution/outcome. Outcomes will be communicated with the
individual who raised the complaint in writing.

Monitoring outcomes

Currently the Educational Psychology Service’s senior management team are
working hard to establish rigorous management systems to enable them to
monitor the outcomes/impact of the services professional actions. This work
although in it’s infancy takes the form of questionnaires to children/young
people, parents and schools as well as the review of school planning
meetings actions and the success of individual pupil plans. Once collated,
this information will be analysed and used to inform future actions. Feedback
will also be given to stakeholders regarding the impact of their views on future
service delivery.

Review

This document will be regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.
However, formal review will take place August 2010.

Katie Hinds
Principal Educational Psychologist

August 2009