Army - Defence Children Services (DCS) Educational Psychologist, Upavon
Ministry of Defence
Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 2nd October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
Are you an organised, self-motivated individual looking to make a difference and support children in education? Then this role may be for you!
The Ministry of Defence employs over 50,000 Civil Servants. Within that, the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) employs around 7,000 MOD Civil Servants located at over 300 locations. Ours is a diverse workforce, with roles ranging from trainers, human resources, teachers, and psychologists to storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff. There are many different functions and professions delivering key outputs for the Army. As such using data to aid understanding of our workforce is vital.
Defence Children Services (DCS) has a vacancy for an Education Psychologist (EP) to join the our Headquarters’ team. You will play a vital role in supporting and improving the educational outcomes of approximately 5000 children and young people in Service Families. This is a dynamic and exciting role providing the opportunity to work with our overseas locations and work with the wider Defence community.
DCS has staff working in Military establishments across the world. Our services include the provision of advice, guidance and support concerning the education and safeguarding for service families in the United Kingdom and across the world. This includes operating MOD schools and settings for the children of Defence personnel (Service and Civilian) serving overseas.
All our activities are crafted to meet the effective education needs of our children and families, mitigating the challenges of mobility and promoting the positive opportunities of service life. Your contribution to this is essential and invaluable.
As a DCS Education Psychologist you will make a huge difference to Defence and Service families by delivering high-quality applied Educational Psychology to the service community. The EP focuses on improving outcomes and the lived experience for children, young people and families through the application of specialist child development, systems and research knowledge and skills. The EP provides specialist psychological consultation/assessment/intervention to support pupils with Special Educational Needs, Disability (SEND) and social emotional needs and operates at a systems level, offering advice and consultation to promote effective pedagogy, positive mental health and psychological wellbeing and developing an effective children’s workforce. You will work across organisations and work to solve complex problems within school systems, local Commands and communities.
This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.
Job description
The successful candidate will work within the SEND/EPSL (Educational Psychology and Speech and Language) Team which is part of the Specialist Support Services (SSS) pillar which is made up of individual teams with specific responsibility for activity that supports the education and care of children of Service and other entitled personnel.
The successful candidate will work effectively to support the two DCS Senior Educational Psychologists based in Upavon, Wilts, the wider SSS teams and DCS schools and settings.
SSS teams focus on Safeguarding, Overseas Supportability, Special Educational Needs, Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Support, Elective Home Education, Education Welfare and Social Work, Education Advice for Service Families in the UK and other areas of Defence, Training, Assessment and Careers Education in support of Service Children. All activity is aimed to meet the needs of Service children and their families in respect of effective education, mitigating the challenges of mobility and promoting the positive opportunities of service life.
The post holder’s key responsibilities and main duties are:
- To deliver applied psychology of organisational and systems change to support and mitigate challenges in mobility and deployment.
- Lead and coordinate key strategy areas according to service priorities.
- To work in partnership with other children’s services providers in the military community to develop integrated working practice to improve the lived experience for service families e.g. mobility, deployment, promoting positive mental health.
- Provide high quality, reports and records of psychological advice and analysis.
- To provide a DCS Critical Incident service to support pupils, staff or parents through the application of applied psychology.
If you need to contact Defence Business Services (DBS) regarding this vacancy, please indicate that your vacancy is being handled by Resourcing Team 1. If you experience any technical difficulties with the CS Jobs system, please contact the Support Team at candidate@support.oleeo.com
Person specification
In your personal statement, please provide evidence of how you demonstrate:
Essential
- Specialist knowledge/experience/interest in a particular area of professional work (e.g. early years, behaviour support, social communication and language difficulties, Mental health/emotional wellbeing).
- Successful involvement in projects as an EP in a Local Authority or similar organisation.
- Previous successful experience in the support of children, families, and staff at times of critical incidents, as well as bereavement support.
- Ability to work independently within service frameworks.
- Able to provide evidence of recent direct personal experience working with individual children/young people with a range of special educational needs.
Desirable
- Experience and understanding of working in the military context
Qualifications
• Chartered, or eligible for chartership, with the British Psychological Society.
• Experience in a UK Local Authority or similar organisation.
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as an Educational Psychologist.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Managing a Quality Service
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
The Army prides itself on being a supportive employer and where possible encourages flexible working, helping you to maintain a great work/life balance.
Other benefits for Army civil servants include:
- 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service.
- Highly competitive pension scheme.
- Personal and professional development of skills.
- Alternative working patterns for many roles.
- Access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a free service that assists you with achieving a productive, healthy environment that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
- Enhanced parental and adoption leave.
- 6 days special leave per year which can be used for volunteering activities.
- Learning and Development.
We believe that everyone has the potential to make a difference and you will be supported to help you learn and advance in your career. This includes working towards membership of a professional body and/or undertaking a modern apprenticeship as part of your role.
A modern apprenticeship is a combined package of work and training. Through the schemes available you will gain a professional qualification, practical experience, and the broader skills required to develop in your current role and pave the way for your future career.
Discover My Benefits:
Please follow the link to visit the Discover My Benefits site which showcases the benefits and discounts offered when working as a civilian for the MOD. https://discovermybenefits.mod.gov.uk/civilian/
This post does not offer any assistance with Relocation Allowances.
Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Selection criteria:
At sift you will be assessed on:
Experience
- Candidates will be required to provide a CV, details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.
- Candidates will be expected to provide a Personal Statement (up to 1000 words) detailing how they meet the criteria in the Person Specification detailed above.
At interview you will be assessed against the above along with the following:
Behaviours:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Managing a Quality Service
- Delivering at Pace
When choosing your Behaviour examples, please make sure you use real life scenarios that relate to your own experiences. Whilst technology may help to enhance your written submission, presenting the ideas of others or those generated by technology, could result in your application being rejected.
As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Gemma Hunt
- Email : RC-DCS-HQ-Recruitment@mod.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : DBSCivPers-ResourcingTeam1@mod.gov.uk
Further information
