Vol. 494 No. 4
312 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps, if any, he will take to ensure that a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath will have the appropriate assessments carried out in order to help him progress in his education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18733/98]
Arrangements are being made by the Midland Health Board for an educational psychological assessment to be carried out in respect of the child in question. The results of the educational assessment will be provided to the Department of Education and Science as soon as it becomes available.
Responsibility for the provision of routine educational psychological assessment for school children is a matter in the first instance for the Department of Education and Science. As the psychological services provided by the Department of Education and Science to primary schools are still in the development stage and are at present limited to a small number of schools, health boards currently provide some services for school children on behalf of the Department of Education and Science. The primary concern, however, of the health funded psychological services is to provide assessment and therapeutic treatment to children, adolescents and their families who present with a wide range of emotional, behavioural and psychological difficulties and developmental delay.
The Minister for Education and Science recently published the report of the planning group on the establishment of a national educational psychological service to provide services for all primary and secondary schools. Fifteen additional qualified psychologists have been appointed this year. These psychologists will work in regional teams under the management of the psychological service in the Department of Education and Science. It will clearly take time for the national educational psychological service to build up an increased level of service provision to children of school going age. During this interim period, it will be necessary for the developing educational psychological services to work with the health funded services to ensure that the available resources are applied as effectively as possible.
