The educational psychologist in England and Wales

This article reviews the background to the development of the profession in England and Wales. It traces the recent pressures for expanding the size of the profession which led to the establishement of a working party by the British Government's Department of Education and Science, under the chairmanship of Professor Summerfield. The recent report of this working party (Department of Education and Science, 1968) is discussed and its analysis of the functions of the educational psychologist is summarized. The article selects a few of the report's main recommendations for the future. Those recommendations relating to training, numbers of educational psychologists required, the nature of the work, and the structure of the profession are outlined. Finally the article discusses initial reactions to the recommendations of the report.