ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses some of the many ways in which Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and educational psychologists (EPs) can work well together. Working together includes the use of problem-solving techniques such as Force Field Analysis and action planning. A Force Field Analysis requires group members to identify any forces, positive or negative, which influence the 'problem'. The Force Field Analysis fulfils two purposes: it enables SENCOs to look at live issues and it also gives them a technique for generating debate with colleagues. Over-emphasis on the EP as the 'visiting expert', which serves only to create a dependency culture in some schools and resentment or cynicism in others, has been criticised for adding little to the notion of partnership. For EP and SENCO there is the pleasure of an intervention which is invariably positive and which can provide a model of working which can be incorporated into the school's SEN policy.
