Ethical Practice

DBS Clearance

All staff who work for Birmingham EPS have full DBS clearance. Staff are issued with a Birmingham City Council ID badge and a supporting letter confirming they have full DBS clearance. Staff will not provide their DBS certificate on arrival at a school or setting. This is in accordance with the city council policy.

Corporate Safeguarding Policy | Birmingham City Council

Comments, Compliments, and Complaints

(Updated September 2025) 

The Service is committed to providing a high standard of delivery for its commissioners and service users for core and traded services.
The following is intended to be read alongside Birmingham City Council’s Comments, Complaints and Compliments Policy.

We want to know through compliments about when we ‘get it right’ and do things well to identify and maintain areas of best practice. We also welcome ideas and opinions through comments about improving the services we provide. We are also aware that there may be times when there is dissatisfaction with the service, and we would want to hear of those concerns and complaints to respond and to put things right as appropriate.

A concern may be defined as ‘an expression of worry or doubt over an issue considered to be important for which reassurances are sought’. A complaint may be defined as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about actions taken or a lack of action’. It is in everyone’s interest that concerns and complaints are resolved at the earliest possible stage. Many issues can be resolved informally, without the need to use the formal stages of the complaint procedure.

Therefore, as an initial step, please share your comments, compliments, and concerns with the educational psychologist (EP) involved. The service values the relationships that we develop with settings and service users. We endeavour to build collaborative, trusting and effective working relationships and with concerns, we also want to encourage open communication with the involved EP as a first step in finding a resolution.

If this is not possible and you wish to share the concern with the line manager or to progress to a formal complaint, then you may wish to speak to the senior educational psychologist for the area team or the Head of Service. The issues raised will always be followed up with the individual psychologist concerned.
The contact details are below.

Pauline Bromfield | Head of Service/Principal Educational Psychologist

Deborah Benjamin | Senior Educational Psychologist (North Team)

Anna Kelley | Senior Educational Psychologist (East Team)

Katrina Burns | Senior Educational Psychologist (South Team)

Eleanor Bilton | Senior Educational Psychologist (West Team)

As with compliments and concerns, the concern or complaint can also be made via email, by telephone, or by letter via the contact information below:

An acknowledgement will then be sent to you within 3 working days of receipt.

With the initial contact with the area team, senior educational psychologists or Head of Service, we will explore the nature of your concern and progress to the formal complaint process if this is wanted. We will make it clear in our communication when the issue being raised is being formally addressed as a complaint.

For parents and carers and young adults contacting us regarding a complaint, we will also notify the Birmingham City Council Complaints Team of your complaint. If we can, we will sort out your complaint straightaway, but sometimes we may need a little longer to investigate and reply. We will, however, send a reply within ten working days or let you know when you can expect to hear from us. We will summarise the decision and agreed actions in writing.

You can also register your complaint, comment, or compliment directly to Birmingham City Council via the following contact information.

Data Protection

Birmingham EPS will provide services in this agreement in line with Birmingham City Council policy and will work in a way which is compliant with the Data Protection Act (1998) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2018).

Privacy Notice

Permission for involvement (also known as consent) is a very important part of psychological involvement. Consent is valid when it is:

  • Informed: the person giving consent has all the information they need to make the decision (including why Birmingham EPS is becoming involved and what the hoped for outcome will be),
  • Voluntary: the person giving consent has a real choice, and isn’t unduly pressured,
  • Unambiguous: the person giving consent actively confirms their choice

We work in partnership with our settings and other colleagues to gather consent for our involvement. 

Depending on their age and understanding, consent may be sought from the child or young person themselves. Otherwise, consent will be sought from the people who hold parental responsibility, for example their parents or social worker. 

Included is Birmingham Educational Psychology Privacy Notice, which outlines information about how data is gathered, processed and stored by the EPS. 

Trading Psychology Ethically

All our Educational Psychologists adhere to the:

This means that we will always provide you with independent and evidence-informed psychological advice. Above all, we are committed to ensuring that our safeguarding responsibility to all children and young people will always supersede our trading activities.