Educational Psychologists’ Work with 19-25 Year Olds: Going from the Known to the Unknown.

This research explores the views of three Educational Psychologists (EPs) who have worked with 19-25 year olds, three staff who have worked with EPs around 19-25 year olds, and three young people (YP) who worked with an EP when they were aged 19-25 years old, to consider how EPs currently work with this group, and how they can work effectively with this age group in the future. Individual, semi-structured interviews were used alongside the Grid Elaboration Method to elicit participants’ views on this topic. Interview transcripts were then analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six stages of thematic analysis to identify themes across the data. These themes were analysed and discussed within and across the participant groups. Six main themes were found: EP Input; Experiences/Views of EP/19-25 Input; Other Stakeholders/Partners; Challenges/Barriers; Journey to Adulthood; Personal Qualities/Reflections; and Areas for Expansion. Some subthemes were consistent across groups, whereas others varied. The findings suggest that there are several options for EPs looking to expand their work in this area, including with: YP directly; parents; courts and tribunals; residential, further and higher education provisions. EPs may wish to embark upon further training to build confidence in this area; governing bodies and doctoral courses may also wish to consider how they promote EPs working in this area. It appears that EPs, staff and YP would all value further EP input with this age group, which could be enacted through forming service level agreements with a range of provisions that work with 19-25 year olds, and having named link EPs. This could support EPs, provisions and YP to contract a broader range of work to best support YP to access learning and transition to adulthood.