Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including full time professional educational psychologists working through (a) traded services, (b) multi-academy trusts and (c) private practice in official data on the educational psychologist workforce.

Data on the educational psychologist (EP) workforce is held by several organisations, including the department. The department collects data on the number of EPs centrally employed by local authorities for 28 or more days through the Schools Workforce Census. This data does not include where the service has been outsourced or shared between local authorities. EPs working in traded services may be included, but the department does not collect specific data on this.

Due to data limitations deriving from different sources, the total number of EPs in England is difficult to determine. The department has considered the benefits of broader data collection, but including wider groups in official statistics is challenging due to issues in maintaining data quality, avoiding double counting and applying consistent definitions across employment models.

The department will continue to consider ways of strengthening the EP workforce evidence base, while maintaining robustness and reliability, and regular stakeholder engagement will support this.