Educational Psychologist Assessment: What It Involves and How to Get One

An educational psychologist assessment is an assessment of a child's learning, social, emotional or developmental needs carried out by a psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, using observation, interview, consultation and test materials to work out why a child is struggling and what support would help. It should result in a written report setting out the child's needs, the special educational provision required and the outcomes that provision should achieve. A parent can access one through the school, as part of an Education, Health and Care needs assessment, or by commissioning one privately.

Which route fits depends on what the school has already tried and how quickly a decision is needed. A school can involve its own educational psychologist as part of SEN support, a parent can ask the local authority for an assessment, or a private psychologist can be commissioned directly, though how much weight a report carries afterwards depends on the route taken to get it.

What is an educational psychologist?

An educational psychologist is a psychologist who works with children and young people in educational and early years settings on learning difficulties, social and emotional problems, issues around disability and more complex developmental disorders. Educational psychologist is a protected title under the Health and Care Professions Council, so anyone using it must be registered with the HCPC, having completed an HCPC-approved Doctorate in Educational Psychology or an equivalent qualification. A parent can check the HCPC Register to confirm that a named professional is registered before working with them or commissioning a private report.

Educational psychologists work through observation, interview, consultation and test materials, offering direct work with a child, such as assessing their progress or counselling, and indirect work carried out through parents, teachers and other professionals. They also advise on educational provision, contribute to planned learning programmes, and often train teachers and learning support assistants. Local authorities employ the majority of educational psychologists, who work in schools, colleges, nurseries and special units; a growing number also work as independent or private consultants.

What does an educational psychologist assessment involve?

An educational psychologist assessment typically combines consultation with professional colleagues, observation, interviews and the use of test materials, before the psychologist recommends the educational provision most likely to meet the child's needs. Recommendations may include a planned learning programme and collaborative work with the child's teacher, shaped by the full picture the assessment has built up.

Schools plan support around the four broad areas of need in the SEND Code of Practice: communication and interaction, cognition and learning, social, emotional and mental health, and sensory or physical needs. Many children's needs cut across more than one category, so the aim is to work out what action would help, not to fit the child into a single one.

• Consultation with professional colleagues who already know the child
• Observation
• Interviews
• Test materials appropriate to the areas of difficulty being assessed

What should an educational psychologist's report set out?

An educational psychologist's report should set out the child's needs, the special educational provision required to meet them, and the outcomes that provision is intended to achieve. Advice of this kind should be clear, accessible and specific, giving the school or local authority enough detail to turn it into practical support.

The findings then feed into the school's SEN support plan or, if the local authority carries out an EHC needs assessment, into the resulting EHC plan.

How does the school route work through SEN support and the SENCO?

The school route works through SEN support, a four-part cycle of assess, plan, do and review known as the graduated approach. A pupil has special educational needs where a learning difficulty or disability calls for provision different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age; slow progress or low attainment alone does not automatically mean a child has special educational needs, just as attainment in line with a child's age does not rule one out.

At the assess stage, the class or subject teacher works with the SENCO to analyse the pupil's needs, drawing on the teacher's own assessment, the pupil's progress and attainment, the views of the parent and pupil, and, where relevant, advice from external services, with any concerns a parent raises recorded and compared against the school's own assessment. Where SEN support is agreed, the parent must be formally notified, and the teacher and SENCO agree the support to be put in place, its expected impact, and a date to review it.

Schools should meet parents at least three times a year to review SEN support, alongside the annual progress report all schools provide. If a pupil continues to make little or no progress despite evidence-based support, matched to their needs and delivered by appropriately trained staff, the school should involve specialists such as an educational psychologist, CAMHS, a specialist teacher or a therapist, which it can commission directly, and parents should always be involved in this decision. If progress still falls short despite this action, the school or the parents can consider requesting an Education, Health and Care needs assessment from the local authority.

How does an EHC needs assessment work through the local authority?

An Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment is carried out by the local authority, which must seek advice from an educational psychologist as part of the process. This educational psychologist should normally be employed or commissioned by the local authority itself, and should consult any other psychologist already known to be involved with the child. The local authority cannot ask the school to carry out this assessment, or to pay for any part of it, such as the educational psychologist's report.

Guidance for educational psychologists giving this advice says it must focus on the child's needs, be independent, and not be driven by financial or other constraints. A parent can ask the local authority to seek advice from a particular type of professional, though it would not normally be reasonable to insist on a named individual, such as a specific independent educational psychologist, in place of the one the local authority proposes.

The local authority must not seek fresh advice if suitable advice already exists for another purpose and remains current, and the parent, the local authority and the person who gave it are all satisfied it is sufficient, an approach sometimes described as 'tell us once'.

What about a private educational psychologist assessment?

A private educational psychologist assessment is one a parent commissions and pays for directly, and how it is used afterwards depends on the purpose. As part of an EHC needs assessment, the local authority must consider any report a parent submits, including a privately commissioned one, and cannot refuse to take it into account on the grounds that it was obtained privately.

For dyslexia, an educational psychologist or a specialist teacher usually carries out the assessment, not a doctor. A parent can approach the British Dyslexia Association or an assessment service directly, ask the school whether it can help with a referral, or arrange an assessment privately, though most families have to pay for this themselves.

For exam access arrangements, it is the school's SENCO who decides and applies for them, so a private assessment carried out without the school's involvement cannot be used to award them. Twenty-five per cent extra time for a learning difficulty rests on either an EHC plan supported by evidence from the exam centre, or a JCQ Form 8 assessment by an access arrangements assessor, carried out no earlier than the start of Year 9.

How does it differ from an ADHD assessment?

The NHS route to an ADHD diagnosis is a separate assessment with one or more ADHD specialists, such as a paediatrician or a child and adolescent psychiatrist, reached by asking a GP or the school's SENCO for a referral. An educational psychologist's assessment looks at a child's needs in education and the provision and outcomes that follow from them, so a family seeking an ADHD diagnosis should use the GP or SENCO referral route alongside any educational psychology involvement.

What should a parent do next?

A parent worried about a child's progress should start by talking to the class teacher and the SENCO, to find out what support the school has already tried and how it is recording that support. From there, a parent can decide whether to ask the school to involve its own educational psychologist, or to look at the local authority and private routes.

• Talk to the class teacher and SENCO about progress and any SEN support already in place
• Ask what the school has tried, what it has recorded, and how progress is being reviewed
• Ask whether the school can involve its own educational psychologist as part of SEN support
• Check the HCPC Register before commissioning a private educational psychologist
• Share any report, whether from the school, the local authority or a private psychologist, with the school and, where relevant, the local authority

Related guides

• SEN tutoring
• How to get an EHCP
• Exam access arrangements
• IEPs and SEN support plans in England
• ADHD vs dyslexia

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