Manuscript title:

Exploration of the developing role of the educational psychologist within the context of ‘traded’ psychological services

Authors:

Dr Katherine Lee and Professor Kevin Woods

Abstract

Following the economic recession and resulting financial cuts introduced in 2010, the number of local authority educational psychology teams adopting a partially or fully-traded model of service delivery began to gain momentum. This study sought to investigate the response to trading and impact on the role of the educational psychologist. A multiple-case study design was implemented. Two partially-traded local authority educational psychology services were recruited. Participants from the emerging service included five educational psychologists and three small scale service commissioners. Participants from the established service included three educational psychologists, three small scale service commissioners and two large scale service commissioners. Focus groups, interviews and service brochures provided qualitative data. All qualitative data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics to describe trends in service use. Findings show a largely positive impact of trading on the role and contribution of the educational psychologist.

Keywords: educational psychologist, distinctive role, commissioned services, school psychology, traded services.

Introduction

The socio-economic context for public services

Economic crisis and large-scale fiscal deficits during the 1970s and 1980s are identified as precursors to a series of substantial reforms within the public sector in developed countries, including the United Kingdom (UK) which will be the focus of this paper (Hall & Gunter, 2013; Wang, 2011). As part of these reforms, an agenda of modernisation, known as New Public Management (NPM) was adopted as part of a wider neoliberal political agenda, based on principles derived from the private sector such as competitive tendering, performance management and the establishment of purchaser-provider financial structures (Sanderson, 2001). Whilst NPM initially emerged in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, it has found a global audience for the core tenets of improvement through competition and marketization, which has inspired public sector reform across the world, transcending national party politics (Hall & Gunter, 2013). However, as Hall and Gunter (2013) highlight, NPM is both a theory that public sector services can be improved by implementing business-oriented concepts, and a set of specific practices associated with privatisation (Powell &Miller, 2016). Consequently, in the UK whilst utilities such telecommunications, gas and electricity previously in public ownership, have been sold to the private sector, other public sector services such as the National Health Service (NHS) continue in the most part to be publicly owned but operate with elements of NPM principles, e.g. the commissioning of contracts for specific services (Talbot, 2001).

The educational psychologist’s role in context

Alongside developments in the wider economic and political context, previous reviews of the role of the educational psychologisti (EP) have shown how the socio-political context in which services are situated has a significant influence upon how services are structured and operationalised (Stobie, 2002; Farrell, Woods, Lewis, Rooney, Squires & O’Connor, 2006; Jimerson, Oakland, & Farrell, 2007; Love, 2009; Hill, 2013). There has been a longstanding academic debate as to the balance of positive and negative consequences for the EP role of various legislative frameworks, particularly those relating to provision for children with special educational needs and/ or disabilities (Thomson, 1996; Farrell et al., 2006; Woods, 2016). From a wide-ranging review and case illustration, Fallon, Woods and Rooney (2010) found that the model of service delivery shapes the work EPs are able to do, and the skills they are able to utilise (cf. also Hill, 2013; Love, 2009). They go on to report how the restructuring of children’s services in one local authority, following the implementation of the Children Act (2004) (HMG, 2004), presented an opportunity for EPs to shift away from their former assessment-focused role in schools and show how changes in the service delivery model allowed EPs to work in a variety of contexts than had been previously possible, e.g. within social care services, private daycare settings; providing inter-disciplinary consultation and supervision.

The emergence of trading in psychological services in England

In addition to the series of modernisation reforms implemented for health and care services within local and national government (Game, 2002; Hall & Gunter, 2013; Krachler & Green, 2015), there have been substantial cuts to national public spending following the global economic crisis in 2010 (Pearce & Ayres, 2012), placing substantial restrictions on local authorities’ (LAs) capacities as providers of public services (Buser, 2013). The Localism Act 2011 (DfCLG, 2011) proposes that public service delivery is outdated and must develop a focus on the needs of its modern consumer-citizens, through decentralised service structures that are responsive to local needs (Raco, 2013). EPs, who are trained, and usually employed, as public servants, have had to respond to this further shift in the socio-political context (Fallon et al., 2010). As a consequence, most LA educational psychology services (EPSs) have, over the last four years, been reviewing their model of service delivery, with the majority of EPSs moving to a partially or fully ‘traded’ model, in which the existing service organisation is required to generate income from ‘customers’ (mainly schools) in order to meet some or all of its costs (NCTL, 2014; Woods, 2014a; 2014b). In parallel, there has been increased diversification within the localising agenda including a rise in the number of EPs working within other ‘trading’ organisations such as limited company psychological service providers, social enterprises, or as sole traders (NCTL, 2014).

Beyond anecdote, commentaries regarding the actual or likely impact of these changes upon EP service delivery or upon client experience are few (e.g. Winward, 2013; Islam, 2013), and indeed the current complex, diverse and rapid development of what may be considered to be ‘public’ health and care services presents a challenge to wider evaluation prior to detailed scoping and modelling of the landscape (Krachler & Greer, 2015). A useful comparable observation made by Powell & Miller (2016) is that whilst, legally, medical general practitioners (GPs), dentists, opticians and pharmacists are located at a public-private boundary they operate, and are constrained to operate, in many ways as though they were part of the state funded National Health Service (NHS). Interestingly then, Fallon (2015) contends out that since EPs are trained and effectively funded publicly it is perfectly appropriate that they respond to concerns of the elected government of the day, Woods and Bond (2014) also caution that as registered practitioners, adherence to the relevant statutory codes of conduct, performance and ethics (HCPC, 2012), and relevant international legislation, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNIEF, 1989), take precedence. Notably, in 2013 the British Psychological Society (BPS) provided guidelines for EPs and EPSs on ‘Ethical Trading’ (BPS, 2013).

Prior to the widespread introduction of trading, Fallon et al. (2010) presented hypotheses regarding its potential long-term implications, including threats to the overall stability of the EP role due to difficulties in articulating and demonstrating the contribution of the role, which might deter potential commissioners. Such instability might be exacerbated where EPs faced high levels of competition from other service providers (e.g. specialist teachers), who may be perceived as offering similar services at a lower cost (cf. Ashton & Roberts, 2006).

At the same time, it was hypothesised that outcome evidence of service effectiveness could also reduce flexibility to offer other potentially useful or innovative services where the evidence of general effectiveness, or proximal positive outcomes, was less clear-cut. The need for EPs to decline potential commissions where they are not able to determine the likely effectiveness of their contribution was identified as a potential weakness of a traded service context, along with the potential challenge to EP practitioners who may need to align their professional identity with ‘selling’ of services/ themselves. However, Fallon et al. (2010) also hypothesised that there might be potential opportunities within a traded service delivery model to expand the range of service commissioners and the types of services offered, including specialist services. In the absence of evidence against which to test such hypotheses, there was, prior to its introduction, a significant degree of uncertainty within the profession regarding how the move to a partially traded model would affect EPSs’ role and contribution. This uncertainty was perhaps brought into sharper focus by a history of mixed professional and academic opinion on the distinctive value of the EP contribution within the range of children’s services (cf. Lucas, 1989; Wood, 1990; Farrell et al., 2006; Fallon et al., 2010).

The research reported here provides a unique empirical exploration of the development of EPS trading across two case study EPSs in order to inform understanding of the EP role and distinctive contribution. Due to the relative paucity of available research exploring customer’s views (e.g. Farrell et al., 2006), needs and satisfaction regarding the EP role, this project was centrally concerned with general client and commissioner experience. A case study approach was chosen to align with the study’s aim to explore of EP services development against a complex and diverse public services landscape (Krachler & Greer, 2015; Powell & Miller, 2016). The study aims to provide insight into to: why the EP role currently exists; how it supports positive outcomes for children and young people; who is willing to pay for services and why; and how the evolving EP role fits within the broader political contexts of education, special needs and disability. At a utilitarian level, the basic evaluation of data on demand levels for EP services, range of commissioners, types of service demand, trading trends, will provide a starting point for EPS self-evaluation and wider-scale EPS evaluations relating to client and commissioner experience.

Methodology

Design

The researchers adopted a post-positivist, critical realist ontological position from which the study utilises a qualitative-quantitative mixed-methods case study series design (Yin, 2009; Stake, 2005), involving two English EPSs, to generate data in relation to four research questions:

1. How are service delivery patterns changing in the development of traded EPSs?2. Within the trading context, how do EPSs communicate and promote their role and

contribution?3. How do EPs see their distinctive contribution in the context of traded services?

4. How do service commissioners view the role and contribution of the EP in the context of traded services?

Whilst these questions may be amenable to other research approaches (e.g. survey), a case study approach was chosen on account of the exploratory nature of this inquiry in relation to previously unresearched issues.

Sampling of EPS cases

Given the practical and administrative difficulties of national random sampling (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011), geographic cluster sampling within the North-West of England allowed the researchers to identify an accessible target population. It is acknowledged that this may limit generalisability of findings on account of regional variability, e.g. community demographic, local government funding. An existing directory was used to contact regional EPSs to employ a second stage of purposive sampling according to inclusion criteria which would provide some level of matching of EPS case cases, with the main differentiation being of one EPS case (A) with an ‘emerging’ pattern of trading and the other EPS case (B) with an ‘established’ pattern of trading (see Table 1 below):

Table 1 – Inclusion criteria for EPS cases

Case A. ‘Emerging’ trading EPS B. ‘Established’ trading EPS

Inclusion criteria

<20% of current workload from trading

>20% of current workload from trading

<2 years trading >2 years tradingHave some service pattern delivery data

Have detailed service pattern delivery data

More than 5 EPs in the team More than 5 EPs in the teamServe a region with a population greater than 200,000

Serve a region with a population greater than 200,000

Between 130-145 Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the region

Between 130-145 Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the region

Participant recruitment within the EPSs

Three groups of participants were recruited within each EPS case: EPs, EPS leads, and EP service commissioners. Following an in-person explanation of the project aims, EP service members with longer than 6 months’ experience at the EPS were invited to participate and provided with approved participant information sheets and consent forms. Recruited from case A were six EPs (all female, mean experience within EPS A = 8.8 years); recruited from case B were 3 EPs (all female, mean experience within EPS B = 3.3 years). EPS leads from both EPSs were recruited.

Potential EP service commissioner participants were identified through the EPS according to the criterion of recent and regular EP service commissioning over the previous six months. Whilst the perspective of potential commissioners who did not buy psychological services could be informative, this was not relevant to the positive focus of the present study.

Participant information sheets and invitations were sent via the EPS to commissioners. Recruited from case A were three commissioners (all female, mean experience of working with EPS A = 8.3 years); recruited from case B were five service commissioners (four female, mean experience of working with EPS B = 7.4 years). Two of the service commissioners recruited from EPS B were distinguished by the larger scale of commissioning as a function of their roles as virtual school headteacher and local authority early years commissioner respectively; all other commissioners across both cases were special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) within a single school.

Data audit within the EPSs

An audit of data relating to commission numbers and types over the previous two years was conducted in consultation with the relevant data manager in each case EPS. Available data were analysed using an exploratory descriptive analysis (Cohen et al., 2011).

Analysis of EPS trading publicity material

Documentary analysis of trading publicity material within each EPS was carried out. A services brochure was available from both EPSs; in addition, an EP professional profiles document was available at EPS B. Six-stage conventional content analysis was used to identify explicit and inferred communications across documents (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005).

Interviews and focus groups

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with EPS leads and commissioners across both EPS cases (Robson, 2011).The flexible nature of the interview schedule allowed for propositions relating to individual interviewees, individual cases and cross-case patterns (Yin, 2013). A focus group discussion with EPs and the service lead was carried out separately in each EPS. Interviews and focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically through a six-stage process (Braun & Clarke, 2006). An independent researcher coded a small section of the data, which was checked against the authors initial coding. There was 83% agreement in the codes generated.

Integration of data

Each case was explored in turn by research question and analysis from each of the different data sources was summarised. A cross-case analysis, which compared and contrasted key themes and topics between each case by data source, was used to establish cross-case similarities and differences which were clustered into super-ordinate themes. As the study was exploratory in nature, quantitative data was used in order to provide context, whilst the qualitative data was privileged in order to illuminate the detail between context, process and outcomes.

Ethical considerations

The research was carried out with full regard to the British Psychological Society (BPS) (2013) Code of Human Research Ethics and the Health Care Professions Council (2012)

Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics. The research received university ethical approval prior to commencement of any formal contact with participants. In addition to general ethical considerations such as elicitation of fully informed consent, confidentiality and anonymisation, specific consideration was made in respect of the use of a case study research with professionals who will continue to work together interdependently. For example, there may be specific risks in interactions for the purposes of this research relating to perceptions of colleagues’ personal/ professional/ political values. To minimise the related risks, the structure and process of questioning were reviewed by both researchers to support conveyance of a neutral view of the subject under investigation. Interview and focus group schedules were available prior to interview/ focus group upon participant request. Furthermore, there was the consideration that most participants, by dint of being practitioner psychologists, were trained and experienced in the task of identifying and structuring boundaries across professional, personal, political and employment contexts.

Findings

Data from each case were explored in turn according to research question. Cross-case analysis of the main themes from each data source was used to establish cross-case similarities and differences. Based on this analysis, a set of main themes encapsulating key commonalities and differences between the two cases were generated. The main themes clustered across six super-ordinate themes:

Service expansion and improvement Ethics of trading Accountability and contribution Marketing and packages Expertise and role evolution Views of a valued contribution

Service expansion and improvement

Service delivery patterns, in both the emerging and established services, show a significant increase in trading from 2012-13 to 2013-14. However, for the established service this increase was proportionally greater than for the emerging service e.g. 40.5% compared to 18.2%. In both services the primary sector remained the largest purchaser, with the secondary, academy and special school sectors developing as nascent prospectsii. Data from the established service highlighted a potential increasing trend for purchasing casework as areas of growth included report writing, meetings, observations and assessments. A decline in buying consultation as a discrete activity was also observed in the established service with the number of consultations completed in 2013-14 decreasing by 18% compared to 2012-13. The most substantial area of growth was large-scale commissions. Bulk buying by providers such as virtual schools and local authority early years’ services grew by over 200% within the established service.

Service expansion was referred to by both services as increasing demand and extension in the type of work being conducted: “... we’ve done a lot of interventions or training” (EPS A, EP). Moreover, this expansion was closely linked to service innovation and improvement, especially within the established service where a strong association was drawn between trading and developing practice: “To me that’s one of the big advantages of trading, it lets you be a better psychologist…” (EPS A, lead EP). EPs reported that they were able to offer a greater range of work and a more responsive service: “And from everybody now, consistently, the feedback is yes, they’ve all used a wider range of skills that they were trained to use, and been able to do things they wanted to do and felt that were not able to do before” (EPS A, lead EP). Moreover, the EPs suggested that in the traded context they were able to offer a greater variety of support options: “And that’s something we’ve offered them, and that is something that that [specific child] wouldn’t have been able to have before” (EPS B, EP).

Ethics of trading

For the emerging service, trading raised some ethical issues as schools were now ‘the customer’ they were arguably more able to direct the work of EPs. In contrast, this new relationship appeared to pose less of an ethical issue in the established service. EPs reported that they were able to successfully negotiate with schools and commissioners: “…with some schools you’re able to negotiate round that and come up with something more appropriate...” (EPS A, EP).There was also concern from the emerging service about equality of service: “If you had to buy us in all the time there might be some schools that couldn’t access the service, and ethically that affects the sort of children that we’re out there to meet the needs of…” (EPS B, EP). However, for the established service the importance of implementing a partially-traded model of service was linked to an ethical imperative to retain some non-traded service time for potentially vulnerable children: “… we have these ten hours, should be for our vulnerable children. So if there is a TAC [team around the child] or a Child in Need meeting I can go” (EPS A, EP). Therefore, it appeared that as trading developed the ethical sensitivity of the services also developed.

Accountability and contribution

The shifting dynamic between EPs and schools was also common to both services. EPs discussed the difficulties in effecting change through psychological processes which might not be visible or tangible to customers: “I think because of buying something in they feel like they don’t want that ‘airy fairy stuff where she does her psychology on me, I just want to be given something concrete’” (EPS B, lead EP). Consequently, practitioners described becoming more directive in their approach, more readily giving advice or providing packages of intervention to make their contribution more visible to customers: “I think I have become kind of more ‘oh, I’ll send them this advice pack’. It does feel like I am doing more of the tangible things, I try not to be totally directive, but, yes I definitely have noticed that shift in my own practice” (EPS B, lead EP). However, from the perspective of service commissioners what they valued about the EP service as traded enterprise was that it provided them with more control and flexibility regarding the service they receive (e.g. able to commission more

EP time): “Now you can buy whenever you want, so if you have got a budget, all the time you can say ‘look I’ve got this, please, can you book us in?’” (EPS B, SENCO).

In the established service, commissioners had different views about what was most important in making a purchasing decision. For some commissioners it was about pace of work: “I think that is why people are buying in private firms […] I was talking to a SENCO and she said they were buying their own and the EP comes in […] she does it all in one day and then a week later does the report” (EPS A, SENCO). In contrast, for others it was the quality of working relationships and consistency of service that was important: “…you just feel they have that relationship despite the fact there are hundreds of children and schools on her books. It does work when it is consistent” (EPS A, SENCO). Larger scale commissioners were particularly interested in receiving a breadth and depth of service: “That EP was not only able to offer advice but because this is a dedicated role, she was able to say ‘I'll undertake some assessments, observations, and I will do some therapeutic work with that young person.’”

Marketing and packages

Both services had developed a brochure or booklet with the intention that it would support them in communicating to potential service commissioners their role and contribution. As a result, the overall content of the brochures (e.g. services offered, EP skill set) was similar. Despite this, each brochure had a slightly different emphasis upon the distinctive EP contribution. Moreover, the perception of what the team of EPs could offer that was unique or distinctive appeared to be context-specific. For example, within the context of established service the main competition came from sole trader EPs, therefore a strong narrative throughout the service brochure was the advantage and distinctiveness of purchasing from a team of psychologists: “specialist team.” However, there were contrasting opinions in emerging service regarding the effectiveness of a service brochure as a vehicle for communication and marketing: “marketing is needed and useful” (EPS B, EP) and “marketing is not needed (EPS B, EP).”

Nevertheless, EPs in the emerging service felt that the brochure had broadened service commissioners’ perspectives of the role and expanded the type of work that was being requested: “Now they have got the booklet they kind of look through that and go ‘oh right, that’s what you do now’ and you are thinking that’s what we have always done but we just couldn’t get that message across before.” Whilst some EPs in the established service concurred that the brochure had helped reframe the role for service commissioners, it was noted that this effect was most pronounced in settings where the role was already viewed more broadly. However, the majority of service commissioners in both services had not seen the brochure. Furthermore, none of the commissioners reported that they had bought services as a result of viewing the brochure. Alternatively, trading purchases seemed to occur through face-to-face consultation with EPs or from word-of-mouth recommendation: “I usually just ask and say, ‘I thought of this, what could you do for that?’… and she said ‘oh well I could come in and do training’” (EPS B, SENCO).

However, large scale commissioners reported that a brochure would be helpful but that it should offer clear packages of time or intervention and that evidence of impact should be provided through data such as case studies: “…your selling strategy was based on hard examples of where you've intervened and where it's made a very, very clear difference…” Generic descriptions of ‘intervention’, or of highly specific techniques (e.g. motivational interviewing), did not appear to link with customer confidence and purchasing as they were insufficiently tangible for commissioners.

Expertise and role evolution

Across both EPSs, EPs were seen as experts with specialised psychological knowledge, experience and skills, including processes such as consultation and collaborative problem solving. Moreover, in the context of trading, there was described from both EPSs a positive evolution of the EP role: “I think we’ve got more opportunity to use skills and interests that we have, whereas when it was just the old kind of service delivery, I think we got stuck in just doing consultations or just doing schools visits. Whereas I think we are broadening out more now” (EPS B, EP). Moreover, as EPs are no longer commissioned by one buyer (e.g. the LA), this appears to have lifted previous restrictions and conceptions, for both EPs and commissioners, of the type of services they were able to deliver: “… when before we perhaps were restricted because it was run by one conceptual buyer and what they saw as our parameters ...” (EPS A, lead EP). Though EPs expressed the view that they were more able to use the full range of their skills and expertise, it was also thought that in this new context, EPs’ ability to perform some distinctive role aspects was diminished. For example, being able to act as a ‘critical friend’ who supports commissioners to develop their practice was becoming more difficult in the context of the ‘customer-provider’ relationship.

Nevertheless, it also seemed that traded context offered EPs a new opportunity to develop and pursue specialisms or their own individual skill set: “And I think what being traded is about […] is working out what your unique contribution is and selling that” (EPS A, EP). Moreover, it appeared that EPs were working alongside commissioners to co-construct their role and contribution based on what each individual commissioner may require: “I think, in a traded model you show the side of yourself the school want to see more. So if a school want training, then the bit of myself that I go and show is my knowledge of whatever the topic is” (EPS A, EP).

Findings from the established service suggest that following the series of local and national funding cuts there is less pressure on EPs to be distinctive as fewer support services exist to offer services similar to those of the EPS. Consequently, in the established service EPs are described as being able to fill the gaps left by other services: “Because the interesting thing is with our level of training […] we can also fill in an awful lot of gaps” (EPS A, lead EP). In this context, the debate surrounding the unique contribution of the EP role seemed to have lost relevance: “… as services are getting cut, and there're fewer people on the ground, we're not having to do that, answer that question so much anymore” (EPS A, lead EP).

Views of a valued contribution

There was a consensus amongst commissioners from each service regarding the core functions of the EP role. EPs were viewed as experts who provide specialist cognitive or psychological assessment: “…the assessments are the unique part of their role because that is something we can’t do as teachers so that is generally when we get the Ed Psychs [EPs] involved” (EPS A, SENCO). Moreover, in most instances the role of EP as an assessor was not directly linked to statutory assessment. Additional core functions included working with others, especially parents, and providing a different perspective to problem situations: “their role is to look at things from a different perspective […] after we have kind of been down all the avenues that we can access on our own and take it to that next level of understanding...” (EPS B, SENCO) and “we work very much collaboratively, and they help us, they work with parents as well” (EPS A, SENCO). However, whilst opinion varied amongst commissioners when discussing which aspects of the role are most valuable, there was an indication that the more the commissioner understood the psychology, or reasons behind the way in which EPs work, the more valuable they felt the service was: “Initially, I used to think that it wasn’t great value but since then doing joint observations […] I have found them really useful” (EPS A, SENCO).

Value for money and quality were important in both EPSs. However, as with perceptions of EP effectiveness, what was seen as constituting a value for money and quality service varied across different commissioners. For some commissioners, price and availability were determining factors in purchasing, whereas for others it was the pace of work completion. Repurchasing of the same practitioner was important for some commissioners, as consistency and a good working relationship were the most valued elements of their EP service. Moreover, for others flexibility towards the commissioner and in service delivery was seen as important when buying a service. Interestingly, a commissioner highlighted that they chose to buy from the LA rather than a private provider as they felt that this gave them a degree of quality assurance: “In terms of finding a private and independent person […] as a school you can’t really be a judge of how good that educational psychologist is and how in-depth their knowledge is and whether or not they are advising you correctly. “Whereas, if you are coming from the authority you know that they have been through a rigorous system to be appointed and that is being done for you” (EPS B, SENCO).

Finally, large scale commissioners were insistent that EPs needed to sell their contribution more directly by using evidence such as case studies to demonstrate that in the context of traded services EPs are a worthwhile investment. Commissioners agreed that, regardless of the particular impact or service type being sought, buying in EPs was a high priority in terms of meeting the needs of children and young people with SEN: “I think for children with special educational needs you have got to have that involvement from educational psychology if you’re going to be able to help them to reach their potential” (EPS B, SENCO).

Discussion

Clarity of EP distinctive contribution

The current study is the first to systematically explore and evaluate the EP role within the newly emerging context of traded EP services. Its findings have direct implications for the

organisation and communication of EP service delivery within the traded context and give original, additional insights to knowledge about the function, value and distinctive contribution of applied educational psychology. Though the present study is relatively small scale, bringing some inherent limitations to statistical generalizability, the careful selection of case study sites and good levels of participant engagement at each site, support a good degree of confidence in the analytic generalizability of the pattern of findings (Yin, 2013).

Encouragingly, this study has found that EPSs were trading successfully, and indeed, once established, were experiencing increasing levels of demand, thus indicating the direct value of their services to commissioners. Under previous arrangements where EPS services were usually provided free at the point of delivery to commissioners via local authorities, this value was obscured to both EPs and commissioners themselves, leading to confusion, or even doubt in some quarters, about the value and distinctiveness of the EP’s contribution (Lucas, 1989; Wood, 1990; Farrell et al., 2006). Furthermore, EPs have reported a perception of improved professional effectiveness enabled by the ability to expand outside of the parameters of single conceptual buyer in order to negotiate the services offered within a traded context. In this research, the success in EPS trading of services has been supported particularly by demand for training to teachers and other children’s workers, and by demand for psychological assessment linked to intervention planning and delivery as well as advice through consultation. Interestingly, there is some indication of a reduced demand for consultation as a discreet element; however, there is a clear view that teachers value the EP’s support to develop a psychological understanding of child or young person’s situation. As DfEE (2000) found, there is an indication also that development of a psychological understanding may be well supported through joint work alongside the EP, e.g. joint observations/ assessment.

Change in customer-commissioner relationships

There are mixed indications about how commissioners respond to available EP services, with some commissioners relying upon an existing relationship with an EP, other commissioners valuing pace and responsiveness of service, and EPs themselves seeing a need for a more directive communication about the benefits of the service offer. Accordingly, an EPS response to changing and expanding commissioner demands could consider two elements. First, the utilisation of local case study evidence of effectiveness of EPS services. Second, a scalable service structure, which may be achieved through strategic use of EPS associate EPs or selective use of assistant or trainee psychologists (cf. DfE/ DoH, 2016).

Notably, with the introduction of a direct economic link between EPSs and service commissioners, the previously much-debated concept of EP contribution distinctiveness in relation to other service providers hardly features leading to the assertion that the distinctive contribution of role is to an extent context specific. There is also confirmation that the distinctiveness of the EP contribution, rightly being the preserve of the commissioner and not the EP, actually lies within a qualitative difference in degree rather than kind of usefulness (Farrell et al., 2006; Woods, 2016); as expressed so succinctly by a teacher within this research, the EP supports the service user to ‘take it to that next level of understanding’. In

addition, in the traded context, as EPs work with an ever increasing range of different commissioners and sectors they appear to be becoming more conscious that these different types of customers will value different aspects of their skill set. Therefore, what is viewed as distinctive in one setting or sector (e.g. therapy) may not be seen as effective use of the EP role in another. Subsequently, it appears that a central task for EPs in this new context of multiple commissioners is to jointly co-construct their distinctive contribution with each customer.

Evaluation of outcomes

Moreover, EPs described an increased sense of accountability linked with the need to demonstrate outcomes and contribution. A joint report published in 2009 by the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), the Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP) and the National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists (NAPEP) highlighted that the evaluation of effectiveness of EPs can be problematic, particularly because of the number variables that occur between the psychological input and the outcome (AEP/DECP/NAPEP, 2009). Therefore, the AEP/DECP/NAPEP (2009) report asserted what is not possible is to factor out multiple variables easily or reliably, however what is possible is to look at the EPs activity, its purpose and take measures in close proximity to that activity in order evaluate effectiveness.

Ethical sensitivity within trading

An important finding within this research is that of EPs effectively managing through negotiation those ethical practice dilemmas that may emerge within a traded context where the service commissioner is also a ‘customer’ but not the primary client (BPS, 2013). An issue arises, however, with regard to the scope of ethical concern: some EPs within the present research identified limited access to EPS services for children within non-commissioning settings as a potential ethical concern. It could be argued, however, that with the removal under traded arrangements of EPs’ autonomy as officers of the local authority to direct their services according to their own evaluated priorities, commissioners’ decisions to access EP services, if appropriately informed, can be seen within a political rather than professional context. Viewed in this way, EPs’ ethical concerns focus upon the clients they do have, rather than those whom they might have had. A counter-argument to this, however, might come from a view about the right of all children (and their parents/ carers) to access appropriate EP services, though it is perhaps an omission that relevant codes of ethics or practice standards for EPs do not signify or specify the protection and promotion of any children’s rights (Woods & Bond, 2014). Interestingly, some commissioners identified confidence in purchasing EP services from a local authority EPS, rather than, say, a sole trader or limited company, as a quality assurance safeguard, which perhaps suggests an ethical imperative for EPs to promote awareness of, and engagement with, processes and communications relating to the HCPC’s regulatory function in respect of public protection (HCPC, 2016).

Limitations of the study

It is acknowledged that the present research is limited by its focus upon positive elements of trading within the case studies, since a focus upon ‘non-commissioning’ may provide useful insights. Whilst some degree of inference is possible from positive cases, theoretical generalizability is enhanced by the inclusion of ‘negative’ case studies (Yin, 2013). It may be, for example, that non-commissioning potential service users are able to identify barriers, or communication gaps, not yet hypothesised, or indeed alternative ways of identifying and addressing the psychological needs of children and young people without the services of bought-in EPs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the present study has, perhaps surprisingly, found that the recent introduction in England of EPSs trading, or selling, EP services directly with schools and other commissioners, has provided significantly more benefits and opportunities than drawbacks or challenges. Through this, something has been confirmed about the value of applied psychology within education: it provides a higher level of psychological understanding for service users, which they recognise and find useful. These positive outcomes have occurred through an active and developing realignment by EPSs. The present research has highlighted some possible directions for EPSs’ continued strategic development within the traded services context, the utility of which should be evaluated through future research.

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i The ‘educational psychologist’ professional role in the UK is referred to as ‘school psychologist’ in most countries outside the UK.ii Primary refers to elementary, secondary to high school and academy to government funded schools independent of the local authority