The National Educational Psychological Service Agency, NEPS, has completed its analysis of the needs of St. Killian's special school for educational psychological support. Members of the NEPS management team have since visited the school and discussed the outcomes of the survey with the school principal and representatives of the parents. Priorities for action have now been agreed. It is clear from the survey findings that the children in the school have complex needs and that many of them require support from both clinical and educational psychologists.
NEPS has not provided a service to this school in the past because it has had access since its establishment to a psychological service provided by a voluntary body under the aegis of the Southern Health Board. This service was withdrawn on a temporary basis, beginning in September 2001, due to the resignation of a member of staff. At that stage, all NEPS psychologists had been assigned to schools, so it was not immediately possible to provide a replacement service to this school. However, a recruitment competition for additional psychologists for NEPS is now nearing completion and it is expected that a number of appointments will be made to the Southern Region.
NEPS is also liaising with the voluntary body with the aim of eventually providing a joint clinical/educational psychological service to the school. I am hopeful that it will not be too long before this school will have access to full educational and clinical psychological services. Meanwhile, it may avail of my Department's scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, full details of which are available from NEPS or from my Department's website.
