The number of educational psychologists in classrooms has fallen by 10 per cent in three years, to 370 in 2015 from 411 in 2012, according to figures released earlier this term. During the same period, more than 20,000 extra pupils have been identified with ASN – 153,190 in 2015, up from 131,621.
The decline has been attributed to the Scottish government’s axing in 2012 of the bursary received by trainee educational psychologists. Since then students have had to fund the whole £18,000 cost of university tuition themselves, on top of living expenses for the two-year postgraduate course.
Bill O’Hara, principal educational psychologist for Aberdeen City Council, raised the issue with Mr Swinney at the recent Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow.
Clinical psychology students have a training salary of £25,500 funded between the NHS, Education Scotland and health boards, he said. “About eight years ago funding was removed and, at that time, the two university courses at Dundee and Strathclyde attracted somewhere between 170 and 220 candidates.
“This last year the most recent recruiting programme received 30 applications and, for the first time ever, they had to have a second recruitment phase.”
Only 19 candidates applied for 24 places, then in the last few weeks two of those withdrew because of a lack of funding, Mr O’Hara said. “We used to have a bursary system which covered fees and also gave a small living allowance. There is clearly an equity issue.”
In response, Mr Swinney told the Scottish Learning Festival: “I will go and look at the situation with educational psychologists and I am very happy to have a conversation with my officials about those issues.”
Scott Hardie, chair of the British Psychological Society’s Scottish branch, said educational psychologists played a vital role for vulnerable children.
“Service provision has already been undermined by the fall in numbers of working educational psychologists and the situation is compounded by the increasing number of pupils presenting with additional support needs.
“The Scottish government must continue to work with local authorities and professional bodies to identify the required number of educational psychologists to safeguard a sufficient level of service for all children and young people.”
Scottish Labour’s inequality spokesperson Monica Lennon said the fall in the number of applicants for educational psychology was compounded by a backdrop of repeated missed targets for mental health treatment.