Job Title: Virtual School Educational Psychologist
Hours: 37
Salary: Soulbury Educational Psychologist Scale Point 5-10 £50,627 - £60,160 per annum
Contract: One Year Fixed Term
Closing date: 17/02/2025
Interview date: 25/02/2025
Come and join us on our Restorative Journey of Improvement to gain the best for children and families in Herefordshire
The Role
Herefordshire Virtual School is looking to recruit an experienced and enthusiastic HCPC registered educational psychologist to work within the Virtual School team supporting looked after children and other disadvantaged cohorts. This varied role involves providing educational psychology advice and support to teachers, social workers and other related professionals in order to improve outcomes for looked after and previously looked after children. This includes direct intervention work with children and young people and responding to both statutory and non-statutory requests for assessment. Attending initial education meetings on entry to care to give all parties a detailed understanding of the looked after child's needs and offering support as required is an integral part of the role.
Herefordshire Virtual School, is committed to the application of educational and psychological research to improve educational outcomes. We seek to promote the use of the best evidence-based practices to help children and young people overcome barriers to educational achievement and to improve social and emotional well-being. The post holder will contribute to the further development of the Virtual School training programme and to promoting trauma informed and attachment aware practice in schools through the Attachment Research Community (ARC) programme. The successful candidate will benefit from a welcoming and supportive leadership team committed to ongoing training and development and will report directly to the Virtual School Senior Educational Psychologist.
If you are a qualified EP looking for a varied role with plenty of collaborative multi-agency working then please see the job description and person specification for further details. Please note, the Virtual School operates a mix of office and remote working with travel within Herefordshire, and sometimes further afield, being a key requirement of the job.
The post will be paid on the Soulbury EP mainscale and is offered as a full-time 1 year fixed term contract. If you have any queries please contact Amanda Cotton at [email protected]
Benefits of working for Herefordshire Council:
A competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:
- Pension Scheme Enrolment in the Local Government (LGPS)
- Generous Annual Leave: 31 days (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum
- Flexible working: flexi-time, job-share, part-time hours and, in some instances, home working
- Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling
- Payment of professional membership fees
- Pick your perks – our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.
About Us
Herefordshire is a beautiful, historic county located in the heart of the Marches on the border with Wales. We are one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England with a wealth of unspoilt countryside, distinctive heritage, and lively and attractive market towns.
Our priority in Herefordshire is to keep children safe and give them a great start in life. It’s the priority for the council, our partners and for all of us who work with Children & Young People.
How do we do this? By having dynamic, dedicated, passionate and professional staff who work in a culture that focuses on what we can achieve with children, what they can achieve themselves, and the relationship we build with families and partners to enable this. We have invested heavily in training and developing staff in our relational practice approach with our improvement partner Leeds City Council, so it's an exciting time to join Herefordshire – we believe in investing in you so you can be the best you can be!
Herefordshire has a really strong team ethos. Our teams are passionate about the work they do and the positive difference they and the teams they are in make to people’s lives. This is all underpinned by the focus and support from their managers and the council as a whole.
We will deliver better support to our most vulnerable children and their families, develop stronger relationships with partners across the region, and beyond.
Therefore, we take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment.
Come to Herefordshire and join the journey.
Herefordshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and vulnerable adults. If you are offered this position, it will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service enhanced check and further pre-employment checks.
We welcome applicants whatever their personal characteristics or social identity. All requests for flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments will be considered.
The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:
- Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme;
- Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are an Armed Forces Veteran or Reservist. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant; and
- Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care.
Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details of this role.
To apply, please submit your CV and complete the supporting statement within the application form, referring to the job description & person specification, detailing how you meet the specific requirements of the role.