How do you choose a good Educational Psychologist?

[HisMum4]

This

Things are so sad with DD2 crying and being upset every day. At this stage we just need to identify all the issues including emotional behavior.

I mean really, if you are thinking of calling an independent EP, if you are looking at a list with hundreds of names, how do you decide?

Yes, I know there are some celebrities in London, but do I really need to go to that lengths and expense? Would someone local be best because they would know local systems and be accepted by the LA, but in that case I might just wait for the LA ‘ EP.

Are there any sources I could / should access to narrow my list?

Oh, I don't know, I've encountered some really good LA EPs, but the one I met yesterday was pretty useless.

I need to search for a private one, too. They just don't seem to be easy to find, especially up here.

I got advice from our school SENCO re EPs that had produced high quality useful reports.

We paid for an indie EP because school were saying there were no issues but we could see a lack of progress. Dd3 was tested in yr 6 and yr7 almost exactly a yr between assessments, she had made negligable progress during this time and had gone down a centile in writing which was on the 2nd centile! Her NC level was estimated as a 2b for writing her school had recorded her levels on statutory assessment paper work as a 5c!

We used an EP recommended by an SEND Advocate.