Educational Psychology Service Consultation Model
Introduction
Aberdeen City Council Educational Psychology Service operates a Consultation model of service delivery. The principles of this model inform the practice of the Educational Psychology Service in all areas from internal supervision frameworks to external work with schools and other agencies.
What is Consultation?
Consultation involves focussed collaborative discussion in which people who share concerns work together to identify ways forward. A Consultation meeting provides a framework for assessment and intervention. Consultation is about joint investigation, joint solution-building, joint planning and intervention, and joint evaluation and review.
Consultation draws upon a number of psychological theories and principles, for example:
- Solution-oriented theory
- Personal construct theory
- Systems thinking
- Narrative therapy
- Symbolic interactionism
- Social constructionism
For further information about these theories, please go to Psychological Theories and Principles
Consultation has a number of key features:
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Participants are seen as equal in status and in sharing expertise
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Consultees should be the people most concerned and should retain ownership of the problem
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The goals of consultation are to facilitate reflection upon potential ways forward in the current context and to develop future problem-solving skills.
Consultation can apply to different levels of working:
- At an organisational level (e.g. helping to inform local authority policies; helping to develop whole school policies)
- At a systemic level (e.g. family and school dynamics)
- At a group or class level (e.g. classroom management)
- At an individual child level (e.g. devising behavioural or learning programmes; identification of additional support needs).
There is flexibility in this way of working. For example, if a school raises concerns about a number of children who fight at playtimes, the consultation approach could result in developing social skills within a class group, or perhaps a whole school project on managing playground behaviour.
What does Consultation look like?
Consultation is designed to help the person most concerned, usually the class teacher in primary school and the guidance teacher in secondary school.
Consultation usually takes place at two levels:
Initial Consultation - the relevant staff member meets and discusses with the Educational Psychologist, to generate strategies leading to solutions. Parental involvement is not required at this stage, though schools may wish to share their concerns with parents.
Full Consultation – a fuller discussion takes place involving parents and school staff, again generating further strategies and solutions. This discussion may involve other agencies (e.g. school doctor, social worker, speech and language therapist) who can contribute to solving the problem. A written record of the discussion and the agreed action plan is provided for all that attend the meeting. Follow up can be arranged as required.
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