Meeting the needs of pupils with learning difficulties. What do primary and secondary schools expect of their educational psychologists?

A questionnaire survey was conducted in all primary schools in the Dunbarton division of Strathclyde region (N=117) to obtain the views of headteachers regarding the involvement of local authority educational psychologists in the area of learning difficulties. This was a follow‐up to a previously published study of the views of learning support coordinators in secondary schools throughout the division. The results of the primary survey are presented and comparisons made with the secondary schools. The findings suggest that schools perceive psychologists as having a central role to play in the area of learning difficulties but indicate a considerable shortfall between present and desired levels of service. It was also noted that after more than a decade of reconstruction of psychological services in which a major theme has been a reduced emphasis on direct work with individual children, the traditional role of individual assessment and counselling is the one which continues to be strongly endorsed by teachers. Some implications for psychological services and schools are considered.