Case studies : Senior educational psychologist: Steven

Steven is a senior educational psychologist working for a local authority with many varied responsibilities. He has a degree in psychology from the University of London, is a qualified secondary school teacher, and has a Masters in educational psychology.

I have worked in other industries but began my career in this field after working alongside and observing educational psychologists and realising that I would enjoy this type of work.

I worked initially as a behavioural specialist teacher for a psychological service. My employers agreed to support me through the training which then was a Masters. The profession was based more on education at that time whereas now it has become more psychological.

Halfway through my course I was offered a job as an educational psychologist in a different county. Typically, at that time we were based in child guidance centres, but now we have a more integrated team spending most of our time out of the office either in the community or in schools.

My advice for those starting out is to get a good placement. Another way ahead is to decide early on what you want to move towards so you can start building those skills whether it is management or a specialism. Having a specialism means you acquire a deeper knowledge of related research to your area of interest. Although your skills will be similar to all other educational psychologists, your knowledge base will be more wide-ranging. Also, with some specialties it is possible to find work as a freelancer.

Your degree will give you the skills you need, observational, assessment, interview etc, but you will not be very skilled with their use until you practise them a great deal in a proper context. The duties within my role are varied. I manage a team that go into schools and work with children. We see parents and teachers and discuss strategies. We might be involved with helping schools with educational tools or systems and we might help with behavioural problems and with critical incidents such as a death in a school. We might also work with nurseries and playgroups, within a home or with children’s action teams, and also offer training to various groups.

I enjoy being able to use psychology every day and appreciate the variety this role offers. You are always learning something new and it can be fascinating. There are still many opportunities for me to diversify my role through work within different communities, private industry or charities. Generally the prospects have been good but funding can be affected by government spending cuts. If this happens, for example the funding for a project is cut; it can impact on the level of preventative work we can carry out above our basic work.

One of the less enjoyable aspects of the role is that it is hectic and busy and can therefore be stressful at times. Since so many different demands can be placed on your time and you work with a great deal of autonomy, it is important to manage your workload well.