Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Jul 2003

Vol. 570 No. 2

Written Answers. - Psychological Service.

Jack Wall

Question:

316 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of children awaiting educational psychological assessment within each health board area; his views in relation to such lists; the meetings he has had with other Departments or agencies in seeking to reduce such numbers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18753/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey):

The national educational psychological service, NEPS, agency is an executive agency of my Department. It is organised on a regional basis, with ten regions roughly equivalent to the ten health board regions. This is in order to facilitate communication and co-operation between the agency and the health boards. NEPS has delegated authority to develop and provide an educational psychological service to all students in primary and post-primary schools and in certain other centres supported by the Department. Provision of educational psychological assessments is part of the work of the educational psychologists in NEPS.

The educational psychologists in NEPS address the need for psychological assessments in the schools they serve and also provide advice on the identification and screening of children who might need to be assessed. It will take some time for the backlog of assessment work to be dealt with but good progress is being made. NEPS psychologists do not keep waiting lists of children requiring assessment in the sense of lists of names that are dealt with in chronological order. Each psychologist is responsible for a number of named schools and visits each on a regular basis.

The school authorities provide names of children who are giving cause for concern and discuss the relative urgency of each case during the psychologist's visits. This allows the psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and such children will be seen or referred on in a matter of weeks, if not days. Where cases are less urgent, the psychologist will, as a preliminary measure, act as a consultant to teachers and parents, offer advice about educational and behavioural plans and monitor progress. Pending the expansion of NEPS to all schools in the country, my Department has allocated funding to NEPS to allow for the commissioning of psychological assessments from private practitioners. NEPS has issued details of how to avail of this scheme to all schools.

There have been concerns in the past that some children may have been referred to more than one agency, thus increasing the waiting lists in schools and in health board clinics and leading to a duplication of effort. A joint working party, established by NEPS and the health boards, reported during 2002 with a series of recommendations aimed at promoting effective liaison at national, regional and local level. This report has been accepted by the relevant management groups and will now be implemented. It includes recommendations for effective protocols in relation to referrals and waiting lists.