STEWART RAISES "CRITICAL SHORTAGE" OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST NUMBERS

29th January 2015

David Stewart, Scottish Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, raised concerns over the "dangerously low" numbers of Educational Psychologists in Scotland during a Members Business debate in the Parliament today.

Mr Stewart, who had called the debate which received cross-party support, criticised the Scottish Government for failing to address the “critical shortage” of Educational Psychologists in Scotland.

Concluding the debate David Stewart argued that “the Scottish Government must act now, without delay, to begin turning around this skills gap crisis, which puts young people's development, particularly those with learning difficulties or autism at risk. This could be done by bringing more people into the profession by increasing support for students in the first instance by reinstating the bursary to ensure a good social mix of students enrolled in the course. The Government should also provide Local Authorities with clear guidance on how many educational psychologists are required per head of population to safeguard an effective level of service.”

Commenting after Mr Stewart said:“There are massive concerns over the number of educational psychologists in Scotland, and I heard from a wide range of organisations in advance of this debate who shared these with me including the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, who believe that unless urgent action is taken the profession is headed for crisis.

“The problem is two fold, there is a huge skills gap which could see as many as a quarter of practicing educational psychologists retire within the next for years and secondly there has already been a 70% drop in new applicants moving into training because of cuts in Scottish Government funding to the course.

“I first raised this issue with the Scottish Government two years ago and they have failed to act or even attempt to mitigate a situation that is simply getting worse. This is set against a backdrop of rising demands and is putting advances in early year’s interventions and our vulnerable young people’s development at risk.”