Job Description

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Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: Scale B, 5-8 \xc2\xa355,921- \xc2\xa359,456 (plus up to 3 SPAs)

Working Hours: 37 per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 1st October 2023

Interview Date(s): TBC

Are you an experienced Senior Educational Psychologist, looking for a change or a new challenge? Or are you an EP with an interest in strategic leadership, who is looking to take your next career step?

As part of our journey of improvement Leicestershire County Council\'s Children and Family\'s Directorate are supporting the expansion of the Senior Leadership Team within Leicestershire EPS (LEPS). Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service is a well-regarded, partially traded service with a strong team identity. We continue to work closely with colleagues across the directorate to meet the high demand for EHCNAs, whilst providing a range of work for EPs that ensures the role is varied and fulfilling. EPs in the service speak positively about their role in LEPS:

\xe2\x80\x9cI love working for LEPS - we have a fantastic, supportive and dynamic team and have so many opportunities to grow and develop as an EP. We have the flexibility to do things our own way, work with some amazing schools and are continually growing and developing as a service so there is no better time to join us!\xe2\x80\x9d

Senior Educational Psychologist (SEP)

This is a new role in our structure that will enable us to adapt and respond effectively, decisively, and incisively to our contextual demands. We are seeking applications from Educational Psychologists with strong leadership skills, and a keen interest in Educational Psychology leadership. In this role you will have a unique opportunity to apply your strategic skill set through working closely with the service\'s new Principal Educational Psychologist and the wider EPSLT. You will plan and deliver a range of critical activities relating to key areas of service development such as workforce development, service review, commissioning, and quality assurance. You will take responsibility for identified strategic activities that will be agreed with you. The role will be varied and challenging and involve high levels of collaboration and partnership working. In addition to strategic work you will deliver a range of team management functions, as well a continuing to provide support directly to schools and families through our traded and statutory offer.

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

About you:

To apply for this post, you must have:

• A Good honours degree in Psychology or equivalent (recognised by the British Psychological Society as fulfilling the requirements for graduate basis for registration)
• A nationally recognised postgraduate qualification in Educational Psychology
• Experience of practicing as a fully qualified Educational Psychologist in for at least 3 years, including work within a LA
• Experience of the leadership and management of people, projects and/or resources
• Knowledge of Educational Psychology leadership and experience of applying strategic thinking in your role
• Experience of effective partnership working
• Experience of working as part of/closely with an Educational Psychology SLT
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, guidance and policy relevant to current Educational Psychology practice
• Exceptional team working skills, with the ability to relate and communicate to people at all levels including at a senior level within the directorate
• A flexible approach to working, including an ability and willingness to travel to various locations
• An understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities and anti-oppressive practice and be able to apply this in all situations
• In addition, we also expect you to share

and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process

More about us\xe2\x80\xa6\xe2\x80\xa6

We are a friendly and skilled team of EPs, currently organised into two virtual but co-located teams. Within LEPS EPs working at all levels are encouraged to apply a range of approaches within their work including dynamic assessment, play-based assessment and consultation. CPD is supported and encouraged

Key areas of EP activity currently include:

• Service level agreements with individual schools, specialist provisions, academies and multi-academy trusts, the Virtual School and Leicestershire County Council\'s Inclusion Service.
• A core offer to LCC including a Critical Incident Response Team, collaborative working with colleagues in Early Years, consultation support to schools for children with complex needs and participation in Inclusion Forums for CYP at risk of fixed term or permanent exclusion.
• Centrally delivered training and capacity-building work, including the delivery of ELSA training and supervision, and large-scale CPD events for schools and other educational settings.

In Leicestershire all EPs have access to:

• Excellent whole service and individual CPD opportunities
• Fortnightly whole service meetings supporting communication, connection and team identity
• Service Development Days twice a year
• Protected time for research and development work that is linked to service priorities.
• Regular and high-quality individual and peer supervision.
• A well-appointed central office base and first-class facilities within County Hall, Glenfield
• Local \'touchdown\' bases across the county to reduce travel time
• Up-to-date ICT equipment for mobile / agile working
• Social events organised by team members to meet and keep connected.
• A visible and responsive senior leadership team

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, and the ability to apply this to all situations.

In addition, we also expect you to share and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

This post is covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent English is an essential requirement for this role.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual\'s personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the page on our career site.

Informal enquiries are welcome and encouraged

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Dr Helen Tyson, Principal Educational Psychologist Email: Tel: 0116 305 5100

If you would like an informal chat with a member of the team, please contact Lisa O\'Connor Senior Educational Psychologist on 0116 305 5100 or via email on

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the \'About You\' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on \'Apply Now\'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the \'About You\' section above. For more information, see the section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre: .

By applying for this post, you agree to our .

About Us:

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a , , , , and organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the . We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it\'s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Nottingham City Council