Overview
- The Education Policy Institute said a chronic shortfall of educational psychologists threatens the new £1.8 billion service that aims to give each primary about 40 days and each secondary about 160 days of specialist support by 2028-29.
- EPI estimated England needs roughly 1,400 additional full-time psychologists to reach benchmark staffing in 96 councils, which it costed at about £140 million a year.
- The pipeline is the bottleneck because qualifying takes a three‑year doctorate and government funding currently covers just over 200 trainee places a year despite far higher application numbers.
- Official figures track only local‑authority employees and miss about a third of practising psychologists, roughly 1,300 people in traded services, academy trusts and private practice, which weakens needs‑based planning.
- Access varies sharply across England, with some areas having one psychologist per 480 pupils and others one per 9,400, while the government says it will invest £26 million to train hundreds more and fund the wider support offer.