Sheffield Psychological Service: A personal perspective

The Warnock committee set up in 1974 to consider how special educational needs should be identified, assessed and met within the education system published its report in 1978 (Department of Education and Science, 1978). This wide-ranging report made recommendations which had profound implications for both school psychological services and for the special education sector. The report stressed the need for early identification and assessment of special educational needs, and where possible that these needs should be met within a mainstream setting. The report suggested that 20 per cent of pupils would needs special provision at some time in their school career, and that the two per cent with the most need should have a statement of needs prepared by the LEA, and this statement should be reviewed regularly.

The report had much to say about educational psychologists, recommending that there should be a ratio of one educational psychologist for every 5000 children and young people up to the age of 19. It recommended that initial training of EPs should give more attention to the under 5s, children with emotional and behavioural problems and those with complex disabilities. The report accepted that this may need a lengthening of initial training courses to two years, and in any case there was an urgent need for many more post-qualification courses. Existing EP training centres should develop a range of post-qualification courses of varying lengths, with an expectation that all practising EPs would regularly update their skills by attending such courses.

The 1981 Education Act was informed by the Warnock report, and made a number of changes to the assessment process and to the formal responsibility of LEAs to maintain a statement of SEN for the two per cent with the most severe and complex needs. It also strengthened the role of parents in assessment and stated that parental views had to be considered when making provision. One outcome was an increase in the number of integrated resources set up in mainstream schools. Another statutory requirement was for psychological advice from an educational psychologist for all applications for a statement of educational needs. This included the EP having responsibility for coordinating advice from any other psychologists involved (e.g. private psychologists, clinical psychologists).

All these changes were taking place in the context of severe cuts to the funding of local government, with many LEAs having great difficulty in finding the money to provide the support services needed to implement the changes recommended in the Warnock Report and those set out in the 1981 Education Act. For LEAs the first five years of the decade were spent trying to come to terms with these changes.

By the late 1980s the whole education system was in turmoil with the passing of the Education Reform Act of 1988. The implementation of a national curriculum with its associated national assessment system and in particular the changes in funding meant that LEAs had to devolve a substantial proportion of money directly to schools, with serious consequences for maintaining central services such as youth officers, advisory services and school psychological services. The following personal account of working in the Sheffield Psychological Service during the 1980s needs to be read in the context of all the changes taking place within the education system throughout that time.

Martin Desforges writes: