Following the economic recession and resulting financial cuts to English education budgets 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 its impact on the role of the…

Emerging evidence suggests motivational interviewing (MI) is an effective intervention for supporting disaffected students. However, previous literature has failed to establish students' views on MI. In the present study, three students took part in an individual MI intervention, delivered by three educational psychologists (EPs). Self-report…

This study investigates the effectiveness of a solution-focused approach to organisational change. Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH) is an intervention more commonly applied to individuals. In this study the intervention is used with groups of people working in educational organisations to help manage the change process. The approach…

Starting school is a critical event in a child's life and successful transitions to school have been posited as key indicators for future academic achievement. For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the process is complicated by difficulties in social communication and social interaction. Parents of children with ASD can experience…

"FRIENDS for life" is a manualised, 10 week, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based programme designed to be run in school and community settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of "FRIENDS for life" when implemented in a mainstream secondary school by school staff. Data regarding implementation of the…

Research suggests motivational interviewing (MI) techniques are both widely-used by educational psychologists (EPs) and effective in supporting young people of secondary age. To date, there has been no published research investigating the use of MI with primary-aged children. This study details the use of a short MI-based intervention with a…

Questions of how best to support both children's emotional well-being and behaviour in schools are pervasive. The efficacy of an intervention planning tool to support internalising and externalising emotional needs and promote early intervention was explored in a small-scale case study. Adults were trained in two primary schools to carry out the…

This study explores factors that influence decisions about transition and what works for children with Down's syndrome transferring from primary to secondary school. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews to gain the views of support staff and parents of two children with Down's syndrome. One parent had chosen…

The research was designed to add to the UK-based literature around the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum, a whole school emotional literacy and social competence intervention. Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with class teachers and pastoral leads. Questionnaires were designed to explore a number of…

Evaluation of successful professional intervention for two case studies of female adolescents' school refusal behaviour is presented. Data gathered from the young person, professionals, and parents in each case are synthesised to propose a multi-level, ecologically situated model of intervention for school refusal behaviour. The proposed model…