Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 13 Feb 2001

Vol. 530 No. 3

Written Answers. - Psychological Service.

Ulick Burke

Question:

262 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has satisfied himself with the situation in the national educational psychological service where there is a two year waiting list; the action he will take to resolve this situation; if the national educational psychological service or the health boards are responsible for the assessments; the number of requests for assessments that were made in 1998, 1999 and 2000 at primary level and at second level; the numbers which were assessed; and, of these, the number of assessments which were carried out in each health board area. [3524/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

My Department is committed to expanding the national educational psychological service, NEPS, until it is available to all schools. It is envisaged that this will be achieved by the end of the year 2003. Until recently the NEPS service was available to all post-primary schools and approximately 725 primary schools. The Government's expansion programme is now beginning, with the assignment of 29 psychologists who have been recruited since September 2000.

In those schools served by NEPS, the psychologists do not keep waiting lists in the sense of lists of named children who are seen in order. The psychologists work with principals and teachers to identify those children who are most in need of help and such children are seen within a short space of time. However, in those areas not yet served by NEPS, students currently only have access to the psychological services provided by the health boards and by voluntary bodies under their aegis. This may have led to waiting lists for those services in some areas.

In making its decision to establish NEPS, the Government acknowledged that children need access to both clinical and educational psychological services. Once NEPS is universally in place, children will be referred to the agency appropriate to the kind of psychological support that is needed. As soon as sufficient psychologists are in place, NEPS will be organised into ten regions, corresponding to the health board regions, in order to ensure effective collaboration. A joint NEPS-health board working group has begun to develop recommendations on common approaches to referrals.

The statistics requested by the Deputy are not available in the form specified, although NEPS is piloting a detailed client database that should enable such information to be available in future years. The following table gives a summary of casework statistics before and after the establishment of NEPS in September 1999.

School year	1997/98
Full psychological assessments (primary)	703
Assessments of attainments (primary)	103
Full psychological assessments (post primary)	859
Assessments of attainments (post primary)	245

School year	1998/99
Full psychological assessments (primary)	1,571
Assessments of attainments (primary)	778
Full psychological assessments (post primary)	723
Assessments of attainments (post primary)	399

School year	1999/2000
Full psychological assessments (primary)	1,570
Consultations and partial assessments (primary)	414
Full psychological assessments (post primary)	493
Consultations and partial assessments (post-primary)	544