Emma Ní Chinnéide

Programme Director and Principal Educational Psychologist

Dr Emma Ní Chinnéide DEdPsy CPsychol AFBPsS FHEA is the Programme Director for the Doctorate in Child, Community and Educational Psychology and the Principal Educational Psychologist for the Lifespan Autism and Learning Disabilities Team at the Trust.

She qualified as a teacher in Ireland in 2000, teaching for two years in areas of designated disadvantage with children with complex needs and their families. She moved to the UK in 2002 to complete the MSc in Educational Psychology at University College London (UCL), and in 2003 took up a post with the Educational Psychology Service at the London Borough of Southwark.

Working in multi-disciplinary early intervention, she became a Senior Educational Psychologist and the borough’s Manager for Vulnerable Children 0-6. In 2010, Emma was appointed to an integrated services management post, as well as the Lead for Educational Psychology. After this, she was a part of the Early Help Service, managing an integrated team of EPs, education welfare officers, social workers, family support providers, early years practitioners, children’s centres, etc.

In 2013, Emma took up a senior leadership post at Redriff Primary City of London Academy (part of a multi-academy trust sponsored by the Corporation of London), as well as completing her doctoral studies in Educational Psychology at UCL. She has also completed postgraduate study in Special and Inclusive Education at UCL Institute of Education and was awarded a Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy in 2018.
Emma’s current research interests include: consultation, supervision in schools and community contexts, integrated working (especially with colleagues in Children’s Social Care and Adult Mental Health), the provision of psychological services at the organisational level and effective implementation of interventions.

Emma has presented at national and international conferences on consultation research, and has published with colleagues work on consultation and on relational models of supervision for applied practice. She is the co-facilitator of the Consultation Task Force of the International School Psychology Association and is the Organising Tutor for the Trust’s British Psychological Society-accredited short course CPD32 Supervision in Schools & Community Contexts: Working Relationally and Reflectively.