MINISTERS are well aware that staff shortages will restrict psychological services for 16-24s, Ed Weeple, head of the lifelong learning department in the Scottish Executive, last week told a national conference in Glasgow on post-school psychological services.
Mr Weeple chairs the national action group which is following up the recommendations of the Beattie report into the special educational needs of young people after they leave school. The Executive was facing a “tricky balancing act”, he admitted.
“Ministers recognise that everything can’t be done at once and that some parts of the agenda will necessarily be taken ahead of others. We need to pay attention to the question of how we best use the resources available.
“But, just as important, we need to consider the constraints on the system in terms of the availability of psychologists. We must develop new services for young people in a range of different post-school settings and be aware of the issues facing psychologists more generally.”
A survey of further education colleges, training providers and inclusion projects has revealed strong support for an expansion of psychologists’ services. But Ron Crichton, one of the three officers who conducted the study, cautioned: “The important thing in the new development is not to be all things to all people but to find a strategic way to deliver and develop the services in local authorities.”
Jacqueline Boyle, another development officer, said: “In the past, things have evolved and just happened in schools. This is the first time as a profession that we have been consulted so widely on something and it’s our chance to get things right from the start.”
Anna Boni, chair of the Association of Scottish Educational Psychologists, said she was heartened by the profession’s positive response to the Beattie recommendations. Opportunities for young people through FE colleges and training providers were more flexible.
Alan McLean, a principal psychologist in Glasgow, argued that services for 16-24s offer psychologists the chance to break away from their present “arid and traditional role” and allow them to take a more strategic role in training - “something we have been trying to do for 20 years”.
Mr McLean said: “The emerging role of psychological services in the post-16 sector is more satisfying, creative and productive compared to the arid traditional role in secondary schools. Hopefully the lessons we are all learning in the brave new world of post-school psychological services will inform and reform the status quo.”
