We hear from Dr Terri Passenger, who discusses when the Courts require an education psychologist for expert opinion. With her extensive and prestigious position in the scientific world, Dr Passenger speaks on the requirements for an expert witness and their duty in the legal world.
First and foremost, exactly what is an Educational Psychologist?
Since 2009, those qualifying as Educational Psychologists must have completed a six-year training programme where a first degree in Psychology is followed by a compulsory three-year Doctoral qualification. The postgraduate programme combines a robust scientific-training in psychological theories that can enhance the development, learning and emotional wellbeing of the Educational Psychologist’s client-base (usually children and young people up to the age of 25 years) and extensive applied practice in a range of educational and care settings.
Children and young people make progress at different rates and parents, teachers, family doctors or social workers often refer young people because of difficulties affecting their learning, their ability to demonstrate their true ability, their participation in school, college or university activities and by extension, their confidence, their social interactions, their future choices (for employment) and their lives in general.
Educational Psychologists are specifically trained to identify and help these young people whose difficulties can impact negatively not only on their own lives but on that of a whole family. For many young people and their families, timely assessment by an Educational Psychologist can be ‘life-changing’.
Do all Educational Psychologists work as Expert Witnesses?
No, Expert Witness work still tends to be regarded as a ‘specialist’ field. In order to work as an Expert Witness, an Educational Psychologist will typically have been awarded ‘chartered’ status, a benchmark of professional recognition by the British Psychological Society, denoting the highest standards of psychological knowledge and expertise. Since 2009, all practitioner psychologists are also subject to statutory regulation by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) so that Chartered Psychologists registered with the HCPC now work within compulsory professional codes of conduct, ethical frameworks and regulatory processes. Educational Psychologists working with children and young people must all also hold a Disclosure and Barring Certificate (DBS).
What kind of legal cases are Educational Psychologists appointed?
The Educational Psychologist works as an Expert Witness typically within the family court system, when assessments of young people’s needs are required, and also in special educational needs and disability tribunals (SENDISTs). The work may involve assessments of a child’s ability (educational, developmental or social) or the suitability of educational placement. Courts are increasingly looking to Experts to provide what they regard as scientific, validated assessments (usually through the use of standardised psychometric tests) to identify psychological factors that may underpin the child or young person’s special educational needs: ‘needs’ which are often evidenced by underachievement, disaffection or social exclusion amongst these groups of vulnerable young people.
What is the duty of the Educational Psychologist Expert Witness?
As with all Expert Witness work, impartiality is essential to the evidence and the Educational Psychologist has an overriding duty to the Court to present clear, relevant and robust evidence. As a profession, psychology is borne largely on the ability to acquire information through careful questioning, examination, testing and on drawing scientifically-based conclusions from any form of assessment. Educational Psychologists are, therefore, well equipped to contribute both scientific fact and/or specialised knowledge as Expert Witnesses.
About Dr Terri Passenger
Dr Terri Passenger is a Chartered Educational Psychologist and Senior Partner in a Cheltenham-based private Practice of Educational Psychologists which holds clinics daily in Cheltenham, Oxford and Harley Street. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and holds an Honorary University Research Fellowship. Dr Passenger has co-authored several academic texts on the psychology of education and also co-authored a publication commissioned by the British Medical Association to aid GPs who often find themselves ‘front-lining’ parental concerns about some of the developmental disorders which can impact on young people’s lives.
About Aspire Psychologists
Aspire Psychologists was founded in Cheltenham in 1984. From its earliest beginnings, the Practice has provided a valuable service in assessing psychological needs and providing expert advice on addressing those needs. The Practice psychologists are trained and experienced in using a broad range of assessment materials and are often called as Expert Witnesses. Two short Case Study examples demonstrate the range of Expert Witness Advice available.
Case Study 1: Dr Passenger was instructed to give expert advice in relation to a school placement for two children following a marital divorce settlement. The father wished for the children to be educated in a boarding school at some distance from the former family home while the mother wished for the younger child to move with the mother to her new residence and attend the local primary school. Dr Passenger needed to assess the learning needs of the children and then visit the two schools and give a professional opinion of the suitability of each.
Case Study 2: Dr Passenger was instructed to give expert advice in relation to the placement options for a young adolescent with an autistic spectrum disorder who had been excluded from his local secondary school. Dr Passenger needed to assess the young man’s cognitive ability and his social/life-skill needs as a vulnerable member of society. Dr Passenger presented evidence from the young man, from his family, from the staff of his former school and from the four establishments she visited with a view to his placement.
Dr Terri Passenger
01242 574646 / 01452 621634
office@aspirepsychologists.co.uk
