Vol. 560 No. 1
320 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of applications for psychological assessment and the number of pupils involved in the respective primary schools in the State to be considered or being considered by his Department and-or by the NEPS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2161/03]
The National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, does not keep a waiting list of all children awaiting psychological assessment. Instead, there is effectively a waiting list kept in each school, by the school principal or by a nominated contact teacher. During the first visit of the academic year made to a school by its assigned psychologist, there is a discussion about the school's priorities for psychological support during the coming year, including the needs of children who have been identified as possibly needing psychological assessment.
In line with my Department's policy, as outlined in the "Learning Support Guidelines", NEPS operates a staged model of assessment. This is explained in its leaflet "Working together to make a difference for Children." A copy of the leaflet will be made available to the Deputy.
At the first stage of the assessment process, parents and class-subject teachers meet to discuss their concerns and to devise an individualised programme to meet the child's needs. If significant concerns remain after a period of implementing this plan, the child moves to stage 2. This stage involves input and advice from the school's relevant support teachers. A more detailed or intensive programme will be devised at this point. After a further period of implementation, a review takes place and, if necessary, a referral may be made to the school's psychologist. A number of options will be explored with the psychologist, including the possibility of an individual psychological assessment. The psychologist may, at any stage in this process, offer advice on such matters as behavioural management, learning support programmes, resource materials and such like. Children benefit more from this indirect approach that supports the adults who engage with them on a daily basis and more children can receive help in this way.
Gathering statistics of children awaiting assessment would therefore be difficult to achieve with any degree of accuracy, as many children who are initially referred by schools as needing individual assessment are, in fact, helped during stages 1 and 2 without the need for individual interview. Furthermore, the attempt to gather such statistics would divert the psychologists from their core work in schools for a substantial amount of time.
I believe that the system outlined enables schools to address their current priorities and to re-prioritise children as circumstances change. It also allows for a measure of equity of access to the service as between different schools. A strict fixed waiting list system would not allow for this flexibility. However, it can be said that the experience of NEPS psychologists is that the demand for casework generally exceeds the time available. This is in line with the experience of longer established psychological services in other jurisdictions.
