FAQs

  • Hopefully your school will have kept you informed about concerns they may have and should have put in strategies to support your child and reviewed their progress for some time already. If you have not had a meeting already, arrange to meet with the school Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCo) or Inclusion Lead to find out more in the first instance.

  • It is important for EPs to work as collaboratively as possible and this means gathering important background information and views of the child or young person and from all key adults that know them best. Do ask to share your views with the EP either via email or via a meeting to ensure that all key information is collected and considered.

  • This will depend on my capacity and I am often working to dates up to four or months in advance. I aim to be as responsive and flexible as possible though so that I can meet the needs of children and young people, particularly if they are struggling. Please contact me via email and I will try to find availability as soon as possible.

  • Yes, sometimes children and young people prefer this or there are good reasons why it is more appropriate to carry out a home-visit rather than a visit in school. When possible I request information from the setting a child attends as well as from parents so that all those involved have had the chance to contribute. I obviously seek the child or young person’s views too!

  • Yes, sometimes, I see children and young people who live, or attend schools, further afield but I mostly travel up to an hour away from Bristol. I charge travel time and mileage costs in addition to the agreed fees when I travel beyond the Bristol catchment area. Please see the fees page for more information.

  • Yes, I work with children, young people and young adults between the ages of 2 to 25 years. Please contact me for an initial chat.

  • Yes, that’s absolutely fine, I often see children and young people at home and I work hard to build rapport and reduce anxiety. Where it is helpful, I often send a brief introductory email before I visit to explain why I am visiting and what to expect alongside my photograph for you to share and talk through with your child or young person first.

  • If you share parental responsibility then ideally you should both be involved in decisions made about your child and be able to contribute to discussions about them. Ideally, I gather information from both parties and the report should be shared with them too.

  • Yes, this is something I occasionally help with. As responsibility for statutory processes lies with the Local Authority and LA Educational Psychology Service, however, I always check first whether they are expecting, or required, to be involved instead.

  • I am not currently contributing to tribunals but may consider this on a case by case basis.

  • I am always happy to attend progress review meetings whether I was initially involved or not. Fees for attending or contributing to reviews would be based on the time required and an hourly fee. Please see the fees page for more information.

  • Depending on the purpose, intended audience, complexity and depth needed from a report, it will usually take between a few days and up to four weeks to receive the report from the day I visit. I will give expected timescale when we have the initial conversation so that you can plan accordingly and I will contact you if there is likely to be a delay due to unforeseen circumstances.

  • Whilst certain information can be tweaked, there might be other factual information or views from other people that are important to include. Wherever possible I work collaboratively to make sure that everybody who has contributed is happy with the final report.

  • I password protect reports before emailing them in a PDF format to the person or organisation that has commissioned my involvement. Settings are expected to send a copy of the report to parents and it is hoped that parents will also share the report with their child’s school etc.

  • Sometimes things cannot be helped in which case please do contact me as soon as possible to let me know of cancellations.

    If a visit is cancelled without reasonable notice (2 working days), however, a cancellation fee may be charged to cover preparation time and loss of earnings if it is not possible for me to use the date for other work.

  • I keep personal data safe in a number of ways- please read my privacy policy via the link below for more information on this .

    NB The person/s who have commissioned my involvement are responsible for keeping the report safe, according to GDPR guidelines, once it has been received.