Anyone transition to locum educational psychologist from LA?

[Getyourstafftogethergordon]

I've worked for LA for over 10 years but with a young family it is increasingly difficult to get a work-life balance. I see lots of adverts looking for locum educational psychologists but am not sure about the pros and cons (except the obvious around maternity leave, sick leave, pension and death in service). Ideally I want to work 3-4 days and mostly in term time. Has anyone left LA to do this and have you any regrets? Thanks for your views.

Set up your own business and advertise yourself independently. I have a friend who did this and she now assesses children mainly in private schools for 1000's and all online. She's given up LA work now.

She also does Adult Assessments for private companies.

Locum Ed psychs only do statutory work, they don't know the local context well. Felt like the worst parts of the job. I never went down that route but did go very part time (0.5).

Never considered private as I don't want to only be available to those paying 1000s. Also much less chance to make a difference policy and strategy wise as an indie EP. I do a huge amount of strategic work these days.

My friend does private work only.... she is making a firtune and only works 3 days. Lots of wok in other counties she can do by zoom.

Set yourself up privately. If you are confident with tribunal work you could also offer your services
via legal aid so you mix up your demographic.

I would never do this. Assessment via zoom? I would feel it completely unsatisfactory. Some things are more important than money.

I've just made the move. In my LA, we were pretty much only doing statutory work anyway and it was very stressful. I'm doing a small amount of locum work (face to face, not remote) and offering training to schools as an EP in private practice. My preference is to continue to work for state schools (as opposed to private schools) providing the kind of work that LA EPs can no longer provide due to statutory pressures.

If you are working in a LA which has managed to maintain a good amount of non-statutory work then you are doing well. If you are just doing a non-stop, relentlessly tsunami of EHCP assessments, then the move to locum work could be a good one. As an EP in private practice / locum, I have much more flexibility in my daily life, do more interesting stuff and I get paid about the same, with the potential to be paid more.

Message me if you want to chat more.

I made the move several years ago and set up my own Ltd company. At that time I was Part time LA and part time NHS. I kept my NHS role for a while then I relocated to be near family. I now work part time within a neurodevelopmental team (term time only) and I do locum on my other 2 days per week. I've worked with the same 2 LA's doing locum work for 4-5 years and we in one of them we have termly meetings and group supervision. It is statutory work and it is remote (that's how the LA operates). Prior to this my LA work was mostly statutory anyway, with promises of project work and further training that never materialised due to service pressures.

As I am director of my Ltd company I pay into a pension via the company and I also have private health and dental care. You can get a range of insurances that cover you for sickness/ ill health.

I love the flexibility I have in terms of my two roles as I can decline locum work when I want to. I would find doing only locum work quite isolating though so I am lucky to have a good balance with my neuro job.

Thank you for all of your very helpful replies. Whilst becoming independent is very appealing I am not sure how much of a business head / outlay will be needed so it seems a bigger and more risky leap than switching to locum.

Working for an NHS team sounds great but I never see any adverts for this in North West/Midlands area but perhaps I need to look more diligently rather than just after a bad week.

A shake up is definitely needed and you each have kindly solidified that decision- it's just knowing which direction to leap.