Time-Contracting Educational Psychologists' Visits to Secondary Schools Working at Making it Work

Abstract

This article outlines the rationale forwarded by UK practitioners for incorporating Time-Contracting into their system of service delivery. It draws upon the author's experience of establishing a Time-Contracting service to nine secondary schools within a UK Local Authority Psychology Service. It identifies some obstacles and critical steps in making the system work and outlines some useful strategies for overcoming these. In so doing it illustrates how this method of working requires that educational psychologists clarify their professional activities in secondary schools so that school and psychologist can decide together how visits will be managed in the pursuance of mutually agreed tasks.