Cornwall Council - Educational Psychologist

Cornwall is one of the most beautiful places in the country to live and work. Cornwall’s Educational Psychology Service is an innovative, talented and supportive team and you can be certain of a warm welcome.

You would join a highly skilled and dedicated team of 35 Educational Psychologists whose aim is to apply psychology to enable positive change and to improve the outcomes for all children and young people. We offer a wide range of evidence based psychological services and use our skills and experience to promote learning, social inclusion and emotional health and wellbeing within schools and settings. Educational Psychologists actively contribute to strategic developments within Cornwall such as promoting inclusion through trauma and relationship-based approaches. To support the future of our profession, we employ Assistant Educational Psychologists and every year we have Trainee Educational Psychologists on placement. We really value the new research and fresh ideas they bring to the service. We must be doing something right, as once qualified, the majority of Trainees apply to work with us.  

All our Educational Psychologists work in close partnership with colleagues in Education, Health, CAMHS and Social Care. Roles within the service include working with children and families in the earliest years. Working alongside colleagues in the Health Visiting Service developing the 1001 Days Agenda around the promotion and development of secure parent and infant relationships. The Principal Educational Psychologists and the Senior Educational Psychologists also manage the highly regarded Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) Service and Autism in Schools Team (AST). Many of our EPs are skilled VIG practitoners working with parent and carers and their children and also carrying VIG based school interventions. The Autism in Schools Team plays a significant role in promoting the inclusion of autistic children and young people and in supporting multi agency working to meet the needs of these children/young people and their families.

We are a partially traded service. The traded arm of our service is highly successful and well-established, delivering a wide variety of services and support to schools and other organisations. This means that our Educational Psychologists are able to access a diverse range of opportunities to further develop their skills and specialist interests. 

The successful candidates will work with a patch of schools to provide a range of statutory, core and traded work, including Early Years and Post 16. They will also have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through contributing to a range of strategic and service priorities including:

• Providing reflective supervision to a range of other professionals, including school leadership teams, Trauma Informed School (TIS) Practitioners and Designated Teachers
• Development of coproduction and Person-Centred Planning approaches
• Delivering Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) and Mediated Learning Support Assistant (MeLSA) training and support
• Working with Cornwall’s Virtual School Team
• Developing evidence-based interventions
• Contributing to multi-agency locality meetings and Education Resource and Support Panel
• Early Years work, working with Health Visitors and other Early Years practitioners
• Support and supervision of Trainee and or Assistant Educational Psychologists
• Working strategically to support school inclusion through the development of relationship-based approaches
• Development of VIG within educational settings
• Delivering VIG as part of the VIG Service
• Emotion Coaching
• Motivational Interviewing
• Providing Bereavement and Critical Incident support

Staff wellbeing is a high priority for us. Cornwall Council is committed to promoting flexible ways of working that promotes employee wellbeing and staff are supported with the technology to enable them to achieve this. We are a dynamic, solution focused, forward-looking service and we would welcome conversations about how a hybrid model of working could be supportive in terms of relocation factors.

This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies.     

This position will be subject to an enhanced criminal record disclosure check. 

Applications are invited from highly motivated and skilled Educational Psychologists who are HCPC registered and able to work creatively within a partially traded context. Applications are also welcomed from Year 2 and 3 Trainee Educational Psychologists.

In addition to the above opportunities, we also offer the successful candidates:

• A welcome bonus of £2,000 on arrival and a further one off payment of £1,000 after two years of service for Educational Psychologists employed for the first time by Cornwall Council
• A generous relocation package of up to £8,000
• HCPC and AVIG-UK fees are paid
• A comprehensive induction programme
• High quality support and supervision
• Ongoing professional development opportunities
• Flexible working arrangements

Cornwall Council’s ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. 

Our core employee rewards and benefits include:

• A competitive salary.
• A defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions
• A generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme
• Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

We are looking to develop our service and are currently recruiting to a number of permanent, fixed term, full time or part time posts.

Additional Information:
Please note, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role

The full role profile is attached here.

We recommend saving a copy of this to refer to if you are invited to an interview.

For more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Kate Horrill - kate.horrill@cornwall.gov.uk

Closing date for applications: 11th May 2025 with interviews scheduled for the 19th May 2025. 

Application Process
Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you may upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate in your supporting statement why you are suitable against each of the points marked as ‘Application’ on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work/personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process.

Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact careers@cornwall.gov.uk if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.

About Us
Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Working here - Cornwall Council

We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options. 

Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits. 

Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.

An enhanced DBS check is required for this post.