Educational psychology services: workforce insights and school perspectives on impact 

DofE Research Report, June 2023

This research aimed to a) explore the range of services delivered by EPs beyond statutory EHCPs and how service delivery may look in the future; b) explore the demand for EP services, and whether the service was effective at meeting schools’ needs and its impact on children and young people; and c) explore the drivers and barriers to EP training and workforce recruitment and retention.

Overall, 88% of local authority PEPs reported that they were currently experiencing difficulties recruiting. Of these, 77% said that they consistently experienced difficulties recruiting. PEPs most commonly attributed these difficulties to a general lack of applicants, which was related to an overall shortage of EPs being trained, negative perceptions of local authority work and competition from other local providers of EP services, including private providers of EP services.

34% of local authority PEPs reported that they were experiencing retention issues. Respondents suggested that this was related to the high proportion of time EPs were spending on statutory work and the opportunities to do more varied work in private practice.

69% of PEPs were not very confident or not confident at all that they would be able to continue to meet demand for Educational Psychology services if funding, training and service delivery models stayed the same. Just 11% PEPs stated that they were very or quite confident in their continuing ability to meet demand.