‘Getting into the nucleus of the school’: experiences of collaboration between special educational needs co-ordinators, senior leadership teams, and educational psychologists in Irish post-primary schools.

Abstract

Objective: The research explored barriers and facilitators to collaboration between National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) psychologists, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) and Senior Leadership Teams (SLT) in Irish post-primary schools. Collaboration is intended to occur across the Continuum of Support (CoS), a multi-tiered system of support providing staged support and consultation for students with identified and diagnosed special educational needs. NEPS’ role in facilitating collaboration is uncertain, exacerbated by the absence of policy outlining the SENCO role and tensions between special and inclusive education. It is necessary to explore experiences of collaboration between NEPS psychologists and post-primary schools within this nebulous policy context.

Methods: A sequential explanatory design was used, framed by Dynamic Systems Theory; participants were NEPS psychologists, SENCOs and SLT. Phase 1 involved a bespoke online survey (n=278), based on policy and literature, which identified barriers and facilitators to collaboration using descriptive statistics. In Phase 2, semi-structured interviews (n=9) were analysed using multi-perspectival Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Results: Phase 1 provided a quantitative overview of barriers and facilitators to collaboration; Phase 2 facilitated an experiential exploration of collaboration between NEPS, SLT and SENCOs. Participants described the experience of transitioning from working in silos to collaborative hubs. Systemic and interpersonal factors facilitated the deliberate construction of evolving, dynamic, collaborative spaces between post-primary schools and NEPS. There are practical implications for NEPS psychologists in creating space for hubs rather than silos, including working collaboratively across the CoS, fostering supportive and trustful interpersonal relationships, and centring the expertise of schools and families in the collaborative process.

Conclusion: Policy gaps arise regarding consultation, collaboration, special education, and inclusion. This research begins to clarify the varied ways in which practice occurs in these gaps and indicates ways in which NEPS psychologists can collaborate with SENCOs and SLT to create active, effective hubs of knowledge to support students across the CoS.