The local authority Psychological Service is an advisory service within Schools Services offering support to children, their families and carers, and schools in Dumfries and Galloway. Psychologists can work with children and young people from 0-24 years of age but the main focus is on children of school age.

What we do

We can discuss with you as parents your child's development, learning or behaviour, and provide information about the kinds of educational provision appropriate to meet your child's needs.  We can also offer professional opinions about learning or behaviour to staff who work with your child.  We may arrange to meet you at home or in school.

Working Together

We do not take over any of your responsibility for the care and education of your child.  We try instead to help and support you in your task.  As a parent, you can provide key knowledge about your child.  We would encourage you therefore to participate in meetings about your child and to read and comment on reports written by us.  We undertake to respect the confidentiality of any information that you or your child may give us, other than in situations where to do so might put at risk a child's safety or physical or emotional well-being.

Working with others

Teachers and other people who work with children may also ask for help.  After consulting you, they may, with your permission, seek advice from us.  We will sometimes want to speak to your child directly or to other professionals involved, such as doctors or social workers.

Kinds of work undertaken

We offer advice to, and work together with, parents and teachers and the local authority.  Sometimes we work directly with children.

These are some of the problems we have helped with:

• developmental delay
• the education of children with disabilities
• transition from nursery to primary schools
• educational difficulties
• training in schools
• challenging behaviour
• emotional difficulties
• transition from primary to secondary school
• post-school planning
• bullying
• grief and bereavement

Our Commitment to You

We aim to provide an efficient and effective service throughout Dumfries and Galloway, working in the best interests of children and young people.  In order to do this, we rely on you to tell us about the service you receive so that we can continue to improve its quality.  If at any time you have queries or concerns about the service you are receiving, we would encourage you to speak to the psychologist concerned.  If there is a difficulty that cannot be resolved in this way, please feel free to contact the Operations Manager (Psychology) at the East Office (details below).