Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding to train more educational psychologists in (a) Bristol and (b) the South West of England.

The department does not hold specific data on the proportion of educational psychologists currently employed in local authorities that had their training funded by the government.

Between 2017 and 2019, the department funded 160 training places for educational psychologists across England per year. Since 2020, the department has increased the number of trainees that it funds to over 200 per year. This includes funding training places at the University of Bristol and the University of Exeter. Immediately following graduation, these trainees will be required to work for a minimum of two years in a local authority in England.

In November 2022, the department announced further funding, worth £21 million, to go towards training over 400 more educational psychologists from 2024. The department will use this opportunity to improve the distribution of course places across England and support local authorities to access a strong supply of qualified educational psychologists.