Our Educational Psychology team

West Northamptonshire Council’s Educational Psychology Service (EPS) has been on an exciting journey of transformation since becoming a unitary authority in April 2021. 

This has created many opportunities to shape the future of the service with our stakeholders, and develop the team, which has a strong focus on values-based practice and staff wellbeing.

Commitments and projects

Our EPS is committed to developing services in response to community needs, and ensuring the highest quality service to support positive outcomes for children and young people across West Northamptonshire. 

We play an important part in driving forward our SEND Strategy, and lead some innovative and exciting initiatives. This includes the Northamptonshire Baby Room Project and the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme.

Continuing Professional Development

Our Educational Psychology Service is committed to your professional development. You will receive a comprehensive induction and CPD programme and regular professional supervision. Additional mentoring support will be provided if you are a newly qualified EP. 

We have extensive links with local and training universities, with a member of our EP team employed as a tutor on an EP training course.

Contact us

We are always happy to hear from qualified Educational Psychologists who can help us make an impact. 

You can also email [email protected] for an informal chat or to ask any questions before making an application. 

Roles

Assistant Psychologist

Our Assistant Psychologists will have a degree in Psychology and have at least 2 years relevant experience working with children or in education. 

Any vacancies we have for Assistants will be advertised so please sign up to receive alerts on the vacancy page rather than emailing the careers inbox.

Trainee Psychologist

We have some Trainees who are currently on placement with us, seconded from their universities, to gain practical experience of the Educational Psychologist role.

Educational Psychologist (EP)

Our EPs have a balance of early intervention and statutory work, providing support to a patch of schools as well as having the opportunity to become involved with broader projects. 

Applicants will need to be professionally qualified and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), unless currently in training. 

We are open to hearing from trainees who are due to qualify in this or next academic year and are looking for a role to start once qualified. 

Find out about the career paths of Sarah, Kathryn and Gavin from Educational Psychologist to Senior and Principal EPs:

Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist

Our specialist senior EPs have at least 2 years experience working as an Educational Psychologist before being promoted into the specialist role, and we will support this development internally where possible. 

Our Specialist Senior EPs have been instrumental in running various programmes and enriching local practice in several key areas, including Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA), enhancing transitions as young people prepare for adulthood, reducing exclusions and increasing attendance. 

They ensure we maintain up-to-date CPD in their focus area, lead working groups to share good practice and develop new ideas, provide professional support to other EPs and contribute to policy development across the council. 

There is considerable scope for multi-agency working, creative thinking and developing new ways of working to best support our local community.

Senior Educational Psychologist

Our senior EPs form part of the Senior Leadership Team which supports an ethos of distributed leadership across the Service. 

A Senior EP has line management responsibilities and supports our EP colleagues to be the best they can be.

Principal Educational Psychologist

Our Principal Educational Psychologists are qualified EPs with significant management experience. They lead the Educational Psychology Service which includes management, supervision and development of the team. 

They have the oversight of strategic projects that the service lead on, and represent the EPS within the local area partnership. 

It is the responsibility of the Principal EPs to develop and monitor the service planning.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits to our employees, including:

• ongoing training and development opportunities
• 28 days annual leave per year (pro rata for part time employees), plus bank holidays, increasing to 32 after 5 years’ continuous local authority service
• the opportunity to apply for SPA points, and/or portability with existing SPA points
• payment of professional registration HCPC fees
• the option to buy additional annual leave
• Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health protection
• IT equipment and support provided
• dedicated administrative support
• working in a supportive team where ideas are shared and opinions valued, you will receive regular informal and formal supervision and the opportunity to be part of and learn from multi-agency working
• employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more
• car lease scheme
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme - our free Employee Assistant Programme is available for you and your immediate family members 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information

Last updated 21 March 2025