1. The number of Educational Psychologists (EP) employed by the council as of 1st January 2024, 1st Jan 2023, 1st Jan 2022, 1st Jan 2021 and 1st Jan 2020. Please provide the information for each year separately.
| Year | Number of Educational Psychologists |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 31 (following staff TUPE into DCC from Babcock) |
| 2024 | 30 |
2. How many vacant EP posts did the council have as of 1st January 2024, and as of the same date for the years 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020? Please provide the information for each year separately.
| Year | Vacant Posts |
| 2020 | Information not held |
| 2021 | Information not held |
| 2022 | Information not held |
| 2023 | 17.2 FTE vacancies |
| 2024 | 8.4 FTE vacancies (5.8FTE from Sept 24 and 3.8 FTE from Jan 25) |
3. How many posts were filled by locum, agency or temporary EPs as of 1st Jan 2024, and as of the same date for 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020? Please provide the information for each year separately.
| Year | Agency Posts | Temp Bank | Locum |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| 2024 | 1 | 13 | 0 |
4. What is the average salary of employed EPs?
£59,246.00
5. What is the average daily cost of employed EPs?
£227.86
6. The average daily cost of the following categories of EPs:
a) Temporary – £500
b) Locum – £0
c) Agency – £500
7. The highest daily cost of the following categories of EPs:
a) Temporary – £500
b) Locum – £0
c) Agency – £500
8. What was the total spend on locum/agency/temporary EPs for the financial years 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23?
| Temporary | Locum | Agency | |
| 2020-21 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 |
| 2021-22 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £8,965.00 |
| 2022-23 | £ 150,483.00 | £0.00 | £56,102.00 |
NB: The service was TUPE in August 2022 so costs above are reflected from Aug 2022 – Mar 2023.
9. What is the current and projected spend on locum/agency/temporary EPs for the current financial year?
Current
a) Temporary – £485,662
b) Locum – £0.00
c) Agency – £144,628
Projected
a) Temporary – £536,423
b) Locum – £0.00
c) Agency – £156,037
The projected spend for 2023-24 shown above reflects the equivalent of 4.4 FTE temporary/agency EPs (17 headcount – to undertake 456 assessments – 912 days work). The savings from gross salary for the 8.4 FTE permanent staffing vacancies are being used to pay for the temporary/agency workforce.
We have worked closely with HR to improve EP terms and conditions to make Devon an attractive employer and have undertaken several national recruitment campaigns resulting in the appointment of 1 Senior EP and 5.8 main grade EPs.
We have improved the offer for trainee EPs and have successfully recruited 30% of trainees on placement with us.
In addition, we have recruited 6.6 graduate psychologists to support EP capacity.
Despite this work, the EPS still has a vacancy rate of 31%. This is due to a national shortage of EPs with 81% of LA’s experiencing recruitment difficulties. There are low numbers of EPs being trained nationally and EP’s leaving local authorities to work in private practice.
We have a further 2.6 EPs joining the service, but not until Sept 2024 and another 1FTE EP joining in September 2025. When these staff are in post, we would look to reduce the number of temporary/agency.
The local authority has a statutory duty to provide educational psychology advice for every education, health and care needs assessment that is agreed. The demand for this advice has increased over recent years and there is currently a 7% increase in demand, compared with this time last year.