Consultation in Ireland

Case Study from the

National Educational Psychological Service

ContextNEPS is a national educational psychology service and a section of the Department of Education and Skills• 178 psychologists provide a service to all mainstream

primary & post-primary schools and about 50% of special schools3200 primary and 720 post primary schools

• Psychologists work with a geographical patch of schools and serve between 15 and 45 schools, largely depending

• on urban/ rural demographics• Ratios for a full time educational psychologist - 1:5,600

pupils typically •

NEPS Model of Service 2013

Core Practices

Foundations for Practice

Delivery System

Approaches

Problem Solving Process

What is the

concern?

Starting Point

Why is it

happening?

Information gathering

and Assessment

How can we

help?

Planning and

Intervention

Did it work?

Review

What is the concern?

Why is ithappening?

Joint problem analysis

What can we do tohelp?

Joint planning

Did it work?

Monitoring and Evaluation

Consultation

Data-InformedDecision Making

NEPSFramework

forPractice

•Who is concerned?•Problem clarification•Background information•Initial guiding hypotheses•Agree further data gathering•Roles and responsibilities

Assessment of•cognitive,•affective,•personal and•environmental factorsAnalysis of dataIn light of initial concerns& to inform intervention

•Select evidence-based intervention•Implementation planning•Target setting•Progress monitoring

•Progress records•Targets achieved?•What’s working well? •What needs to be modified?

Working Draft 2013

Teacher ConsultationBESD & SEN Continuum of SupportCOS Student FileIY TCM (& Classroom Dina)(Friends for Life-2014/15)

Teacher ConsultationCase ConsultationCOS Student fileLiteracy InterventionsFriends for Life

Complex Case ConsultationCOS Student File

SchoolSupport

Plusfor a few

School Supportfor

some

Classroom Supportfor all

National Educational Psychology Service NEPS

Consultation documents

Proving and ImprovingRecord our consultation activity • Log of School ConsultationsMinimum recording of casework • Log of casework actionsFor those doing group consultation with clusters of schools• Psychologist’s summary sheet, group consultation

2016 Evaluation- New Options• Evaluating Consultation- A Self-Reflection Exercise• Are we helping? Feedback from Teachers/ Parents • Psychologists Questionnaire re Use of TME

Evaluation to date:

• Group Consultation- Evaluation Report of Pilot Phase, September 2013

• Log of School Consultations- Survey Monkey to all NEPS Psychologists & submission of sample logs, July 2015

• Team review of practice - (identifying areas where progress had been made and areas for further development), late 2015

• Additionally, teams considered the competency framework

• Concept of Target Monitoring Evaluation was introduced

Survey Monkey, 2015• Objective data that tells us how much consultation is happening:

• What kinds of consultation (teacher/ organisational/ casework) are happening and how many/ how often?

• How many teachers are engaged?

• How many students are impacted?

• Insights from psychologists.

100 psychologists completed survey

37 samples of logs were submitted

Teachers were most common recipients of consultation, with principals and vice-principals strongly represented. Subject teachers in post-primary and parents were rarely recipients of consultation

Clear evidence of time given to schools- average primary school gets

6 hours of consultation per year, post-primary school gets 4 hours.

Case Study- Shirley Murphy • Training- Degree in Human Psychology

• Post Graduation teaching qualification- early years

• 14 years teaching experience

• Masters in Educational Psychology

• Practising educational psychologist in NEPS for 15 years (Senior psychologist for last 4 years)

• Work setting- as outlined in introduction, 17 schools, age range 4-18 years, diverse population, some rural, some urban, some schools in privileged communities, some schools in very disadvantaged communities

Knowledge and training on consultation skills

• No significant training given when undertaking Masters

• NEPs provided training

• Regional and national Inputs

• Part of the Model of Service

• Specific training in region

Consultees

• Teachers and Special Needs Assistants

• Mainstream and special education teachers

• Parents

• School principals

• Other professionals

Sample of Teacher consultation

• 2nd Class girl, 8 years old

• First raised as a concern by school principal during planning meeting (start of academic year, September), unusual behaviours, distractible

• Agreed to start with teacher consultation (rather than initiate assessment process)

• Consultation with class teacher (February). Teacher had completed pre-consultation planning form

• Strategies to address the behaviours of concern were agreed

• Reviewed June, interventions had worked well

Outcomes• Teacher considered that child had improved ‘hugely’

• Move away from formal ‘assessment’

• Enhanced instructional interaction

• Pooling strategies, sharing ideas

• Reassurance for teacher

• Focus on the child

• Total time spent on this case, approx 2 hours

Reflections

• Consultation was the correct approach in this case

• School was well-prepared and ‘ready’ for this approach

Considerations & Personal Skills Needed

• Influenced by training given in NEPS

• Approach consistent with our Model of Service (Student Support File)

• Confident in using the Continuum of Support Model

• Openness to other people and willing to work with where they are at

• Experience and knowledge of interventions

• Interacting with teacher as an equal- not an expert model

• Ability to really listen

Barriers

• Lack of understanding on the part of schools

• Not valuing consultation as a piece of work (without assessment)

• Need for training for psychologists and teachers

• Support of school principal is vital

• Time- for psychologists to give and for teachers to be released, must not be rushed!!!

Recommendations

• Time- fewer schools and better psychologist to pupil ratio

• Resource allocation system changed, so psychologist not tied up in gate-keeper role

• Schools need help to write targets and develop support plans

Then we can really do psychology for everybody's benefit.

Knotty problems….

• Consent

• Un-named v named

• When is a case a case?

Psychologists need clarity about the circumstances in which

a consultation can reasonably be considered a Teacher

Consultation and the circumstances in which the

consultation is best considered a Casework Consultation.

Mary Nugentmary_nugent@education.gov.ie

Paula Long

Rena Forrestal

Rhona Larney

Presented by

Margaret Grogan

on behalf of the team

For further information about the National Educational Psychological

Service – Ireland see www.education.gov.ie

margaret_grogan@education.gov.ie