Project: exploring the experiences of EPs taking part in Fair Access Protocols (FAP)

This project aims to explore the experiences of UK based, trainee and/or qualified EPs taking part in Fair Access Protocols (FAP). I am interested in what facilitates EP work within these processes and what EPs perceive as their role and contributions.

Project Focus

Fair Access Protocols exists to support the placement of children and young people (CYP) who do not have or are at risk of losing a current school placement. FAP often includes a range of professionals who meet to discuss the needs and placement options for vulnerable CYP without an EHCP. Meetings can be inundated by school requests for placement changes for CYP demonstrating “challenging behaviour” and/or at risk of being permanently excluded from their current setting.

With this in mind, FAP may be known by a different name and could include the terms:

• Inclusion
• Managed move or transfer
• Admission
• Placement
• Behaviour

How you can participate

I would like to hear from EPs/TEPs involved in any mechanisms using FAP where they are working with other professionals to discuss the school placements of CYP demonstrating “challenging behaviour”. You must be UK based, working for a local authority and have had involvement with the processes in the last two academic years (i.e., since September 2022).

If you would like to take part, please email Anna for further information and to request a consent form. Contacting the researcher will not automatically register you as a participant.

Involvement

A one-hour interview with the researcher, conducted over Microsoft Teams. 

Researcher

Anna Beckett (Trainee Educational Psychologist at the University of Bristol).

Supervised by Dr Amanda Gaulter (Lecturer in Educational Psychology at the University of Bristol).

Please do contact me (Anna) or my thesis supervisor Dr Amanda Gaulter for further information or if you have any concerns.

Ethical approval has been granted by the University of Bristol School for Policy Studies Ethics Committee.

Research questions

• What are EP’s perceptions of their role in FAP when CYP cited as demonstrating “challenging behaviour” (DfE, 2021) are raised?
• What psychology do EPs feel supports and informs their role in FAP?
• What facilitators and challenges do EPs experience within their role in FAP and what mechanisms do they use for support?

Deadline

Friday 31st January 2025.

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