Highlands and Islands MSP, David Stewart, supports a call from the leading coalition of third and independent sector providers of children’s services.
The call is to the Scottish Government to take urgent action following recent reports indicating a shortage in the number of educational psychologists in Scotland.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition [SCSC], has used phrases like ‘ticking timebomb’ and ‘impending crisis’ following a report from the Scottish National Steering Group of Educational Psychologists, indicating that the number of educational psychologists in Scotland is ‘dangerously low’.
This follows news revealed in August that Scotland faces a shortage of psychiatrists.
Together these shortages may indicate a need for better strategic planning in the provision of specific higher education provision.
Mr Stewart says: ‘For some time I have had a major concern over the shortage and training of Educational Psychologists in Scotland and have pressed the Scottish Government on what plans they have to tackle what the SCSC has branded a ‘ticking time bomb’.’
Last month the MSP issued a written question to Education Secretary, Mike Russell, questioning the Scottish Government cuts to tuition fees and grant funding; and asking what steps the Scottish Government was taking to address the predicated shortage.
He says: ‘Following written questions and letters to the Education Secretary, it is clear the Scottish Government have been caught red handed, cutting the essential funding needed to train new educational psychologists. Instead of adequately addressing the shortage the Mike Russell is attempting to brush this issue under the carpet.
‘Following the warning from the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition, I hope the Scottish Government will now take this issue seriously and work to tackle the problem they have created.’
The SCSC has warned that increased demand for services, cuts to local authority budgets and the withdrawal of funding for the training of educational psychologists places that profession close to a tipping point.
Moreover, a quarter of educational psychologists may retire in the next four years, with too few new trainees recruited.
There is also a concern that some councils could breach their statutory obligations on provision if the situation does not improve.
The reduced interest in this area of psychology comes after the Scottish Government, in November 2011, scrapped a £49,000 bursary designed to put students through two years of training.
By contrast, the training of clinical psychologists in Scotland is fully funded; and educational psychologists in England, Wales and Northern Ireland still receive significant financial support.
The SCSC has warned of a postcode lottery exists, with people in some areas having less access to educational psychologists, potentially putting them at risk.