2004 - 05 Reports

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) is managed by the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP) in collaboration with local councils and funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED). This is the tenth cycle of the programme, which involves groups of psychologists in cross-boundary project work and other professional development activities, around agreed themes, over a period of about one year. The outcomes of this work are disseminated to colleagues and others in the field of education. This booklet gives a summary of the activities and findings of the three themes addressed by the 2004-2005 programme, namely:

• Co-ordinated and integrated working in the early years: The design and review of models in the context of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 Code of Practice
• The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004: Implication for the Practice of Educational Psychologists
• Post School Transitions

The remit for this strand of the 2004-2005 was to input to the Early Years section in the Code of Practice for Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. In setting this remit, the profession, as represented through the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists, was seeking the opportunity to be involved in making a contribution to the Code of Practice.

This year’s PDP is unique in that the focus of all three documents within the publication is the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, referred to here as the ASL Act. This Act represents for educational psychologists the most significant piece of legislation since the amendment to the Education (Scotland) Act 19801 which defined special educational needs and introduced the Record of Needs. A Code of Practice will accompany the ASL Act and it is fitting therefore, that the group had a significant role in shaping the first draft of the Code before moving on to look more closely at the specific implications for the practice of educational psychologists in Scotland.

The Beattie Committee report “Implementing Inclusiveness, Realising Potential” was published in 1999. The committee had particular concerns about young people aged 16 to 19 who were not in education, training or employment (NEET). Many of these young people become disengaged or excluded from statutory education before their earliest official school leaving age. Reducing NEET figures by 50% is a Social Justice Target of the Scottish Parliament.

Three of Beattie’s areas of deliberation are central to almost every piece of work covered by this PDP group. The Beattie Committee recommended that vulnerable young people about to leave secondary school should have an identified person to whom they could go for help or information once they had left (Key worker). It also recommended that the information schools have about young people should be passed on as part of good transition planning. Additionally the Beattie Committee recommended the extension of educational psychology services to the post school sector. The research done by this PDP group covers some of the work done by educational psychologists working in the post school sector in supporting young people in transition from secondary school and looks at practice elsewhere in Europe.