It is my intention that a full educational psychological service should be made available to all children in schools, free of cost, as soon as is practically possible. A full educational psychological service to schools includes programmes of screening, early intervention and systemic work as well as an assessment service where appropriate.
I recently announced the acceleration of recruitment to the National Educational Psychological Service agency – NEPS. The Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission is completing a recruitment competition on behalf of NEPS and a substantial number of appointments are to be made in the coming months. I hope the service will be made available to all schools within the next 12 months.
As an interim measure pending this welcome development, I announced funding last June for the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments. This scheme is primarily available to those schools that do not yet have access to the NEPS service. To allow all eligible schools the opportunity to access the available funding and taking account of likely incidences of disability, the number of assessments per school has initially been determined by the number of pupils to a maximum of two per 100 pupils enrolled. However, NEPS is completing a review of the operation of the scheme. NEPS will then make recommendations to me on any adjustments that might be appropriate in future. My objective will be to ensure that adequate resources are made available in cases where assessment is appropriate.
I am aware that there tends to be a higher incidence of children in disadvantaged areas who need access to extra educational supports. My Department has provided a range of schemes to meet their needs and children do not need to have been psychologically assessed to benefit under these schemes.
