More than two-thirds of local authorities are struggling to fill educational psychologist vacancies, according to new research.

The findings were published as the government launched a £31.6 million fund to boost the pipeline of psychologists.

According to research commissioned by the Department for Education, 68 per cent of councils had difficulties filling vacant educational psychologist posts in 2018.

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Local authorities said that a lack of people being trained for the role was contributing to under-supply.

Shortage of educational psychologists

To tackle the issue, the DfE has launched a procurement exercise to find specialist training providers. This will come with a £31.6 million fund to provide 600 educational psychologist trainees with free tuition and grants.

The DfE said the move would ensure a steady flow of new entrants to the workforce and vary the geographical spread of training.

Children and families minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “Every child deserves to be happy, healthy and have the best chance of fulfilling their potential. Educational psychologists play an important role in making sure that this is no different for children with additional needs, by providing tailored support and helping families and teachers when there are challenges to overcome.  

“We said that we would train more educational psychologists to help meet increasing demand for their services - and today we are confirming funding over £30 million to make this happen. We are launching three new training rounds from 2020 which will see over 600 psychologists trained.   

“New research published today tells us that too many local authorities have struggled to fill vacancies for educational psychologists. This new funding for additional psychologists will mean many more children, their schools and their parents feel well supported to tackle what can often be complex difficulties.”  

The current annual size of the education psychologist training cohort is 160, but this will expand to 206.

The DfE fund will cover the operation costs of the training providers, while contributing towards university tuition for education psychologist trainees with an additional bursary grant for their first year of study.