Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between an independent ed psych and one who works for a local authority?
There is no difference in their training, knowledge and skills or in the kind of work they do. The difference is in the way they are employed. Increasing numbers of ed psychs now choose to work outside the local authority and many schools work with both local authority and independent ed psychs. Local authorities are increasingly using the services of independent ed psychs to carry out assessments where they don't have the capacity to do this work themselves. We are the preferred educational psychology service for a number of schools and we also do some work that is requested by local authority officers.
An independent educational psychologist, who is likely to be self employed, will have more control over the work that they do and a greater ability to develop their skills and knowledge in particular areas of their choosing. A local authority ed psych will be embedded in the authority's provision and is likely to have a greater knowledge of how that organisation works and of local authority processes. Regardless of how they are employed, all educational psychologists have to meet the same quality standards and are equally at risk of being sanctioned by the Health and Care Professions Council if their practice falls short of those standards.
How much do you charge?
Please contact us for information about our costs. We will be very happy to give you a clear indication of how much we charge based on the work you are requesting.
We charge on a day, half-day or hourly basis as appropriate. There are some detailed estimates of the time required for different pieces of work in the Where does the time go? document on our Downloads page. For schools and academies we charge a standard 'pay as you go' rate and a lower rate if you purchase 5 or more days from us in a year by contract. Regardless of the number of days purchased, there's no charge for unlimited follow up contact by email or phone after we have finished a piece of work.
Please note that ed psych assessments are exempt from VAT unless you arrange the assessment through an agency. We are not an agency.
We offer some services at no cost to voluntary sector organisations supporting vulnerable children and adults. Contact us to request the criteria for this work.
Can we use one of your reports as evidence to support an application for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)?
Yes. Our reports are routinely used as evidence to support applications for EHCPs. Applying for an EHCP is a multi-step process. The first step is gathering sufficient evidence to convince a local authority that a child has exceptional needs. This is the stage at which our reports are most frequently used by both schools and parents. If the local authority agrees to proceed with the EHCP assessment they often ask one of their own psychologists, and a range of other professionals, to supplement that evidence with further reports, all of which are used to write the final EHCP.
How soon can I get an appointment with you?
The waiting time depends on how busy we are, which changes across the academic year, and the kind of work you are requesting. It can vary between weeks and months. Short notice appointments are sometimes available. We purposely keep our waiting lists relatively short because children and their circumstances change and if we can't offer you an appointment within what we feel is a reasonable timeframe we will advise you to look at other options. Please contact us with some details about your concerns and we will be able to give you a precise answer to this question.
Do you charge for travel time and mileage?
We make a separate charge for travel only if you are further than 25 miles by car from our office base in Portsmouth. Under these circumstances we charge a fixed sum of £25 plus the HMRC rate of 45p per mile for miles travelled each way beyond the 25 mile limit. We use a 'sat nav' app to calculate journey times and distances.
Will I get a written report?
We provide a written report of the work we have carried out and the recommendations we make as a standard part of the service we offer.
Do you work with adults?
Yes, we offer appointments to adults. Typical enquiries cover issues to do with unrecognised/undiagnosed learning difficulties or disabilities that may be interfering with that person's progress in further or higher education or in their work. Some of our adult clients are the parents of children we have previously worked with, who see similarities in their children's difficulties and their own. Others have had difficulty getting into or staying in regular employment and are not sure why this is happening. If the reasons lie within the scope of our work we may be able to help.
What professional insurance cover do you have?
We have Professional Liability Insurance provided by Towergate Professional Risks, which includes Public Liability and Professional Indemnity cover.
Who else sees the reports you write?
The reports we write contain personal, and usually sensitive, information about specific children, young people, adults and families. Decisions about their distribution must be guided by knowledge of our duties under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Generally speaking we will only distribute our reports to other organisations or people with the consent of the person or persons that the reports are about. Anyone who receives our reports should not copy them to others without this same consent. The children, young people and adults who are the subjects of our reports can pass copies of those reports on to anyone they would like to share them with. There is more information about use of personal data here www.solentpsychology.co.uk/personal-information
Do you do home visits? Will you visit the school?
We make home visits and visits to schools, colleges and other settings. There are 'pros and cons' to each and we will discuss this with you when you make an enquiry. The best place for an assessment is the place where the best assessment is likely to be done!
Wherever this happens to be, we gather the same referral information using the same referral form – if we make a school visit we of course want the permission and the views of parents/carers; if we make a home visit we want to have as much relevant information from school as you/they are able to provide.
Most assessment work is individual work with a child or young person that can be done in any quiet, reasonably distraction-free setting.
Can we come to you?
We no longer offer appointments here at our office base. Travel is an ordinary part of the work of educational psychologists and our assessment appointments will mainly be home visits or visits to school or the workplace. For some older learners living away from home, such as university students, bookable meeting rooms in spaces such as libraries are a good option.
Will you charge us for a cancelled appointment?
There are so many different circumstances in which a cancellation can occur that we would try to agree a reasonable response to this with you on a case by case basis. Generally speaking if a cancellation occurs before we have arrived for an appointment then we wouldn't make any charge for this, particularly if the work was re-scheduled. If work is cancelled after we have arrived we are likely to charge for the total time spent on the cancelled appointment, including travel time, but not charge for the whole appointment as if it had gone ahead. In the exceptional circumstances of us cancelling an appointment we will re-schedule it for you as a matter of priority.
My son's school says the local authority ed psych doesn't have time to meet children individually. Am I allowed to ask you to work with him?
You are perfectly entitled to ask. The ed psych in question may feel that working with individual children is not the best use of their time or they may be following an agreed policy in the local authority service. There's no reason why we can't see a child in a school that normally works with a local authority ed psych. Unfortunately you can't assume that the school would be willing to pay for our time under these circumstances so it's likely that you would have to pay for this work.
How long does an assessment take?
Good psychological assessments should be trying to answer questions, so the length of the assessment depends on the concerns you have expressed and the questions you would like answered. Psychologists are often asked to give advice and carry out assessments in situations where there is puzzlement and stressful uncertainty and no clear steps towards a solution. As a guide, a thorough assessment of literacy, learning or behaviour difficulties under those circumstances will usually take about half a day to carry out the discussions, gather the background information and do the assessment work itself, and a further half day to write the report with detailed recommendations. By contrast, assessment work that is addressing only one or two very specific questions about a person whose needs are in other respects well understood will take less time than this. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements.
What if I'm unhappy with the service you provide?
As with any other service provider, we hope that in the first instance you'll talk to us about this. If we can't arrive at a solution that meets your needs, and you are certain that further action is required, then you should raise your concerns with the Health and Care Professions Council who deal with complaints about psychologists. If your concerns are about how we've handled your personal information then you should contact the Information Commissioner's Office.
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