Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 March 2005
134 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Education and Science her plans to reduce the waiting lists for the NEPS; the numbers currently on the waiting lists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7990/05]
View answerThe educational psychologists in the National Educational Psychological Service do not keep waiting lists of children requiring assessment in the sense of lists of names that are dealt with in chronological order. School authorities refer children for assessment and discuss the relative urgency of each case during the psychologists' visits. An overall account of current waiting lists, as requested by the Deputy, is not available to NEPS as this information is held by the schools.
In common with many other psychological services, NEPS operates a staged model of service to schools, whereby an initial referral usually leads to a consultation and provision of advice to teachers and parents on appropriate teaching and management strategies. Progress is kept under review and only those children who fail to respond to these interventions will need to see a psychologist. This allows the psychologists to offer early appointments to children who are in urgent need of support and early advice to teachers in respect to those children whose needs are perhaps less pressing but who still need additional help in school.
NEPS is being developed on a phased basis over a number of years. Pending expansion of its service 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 the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments to all schools and these also appear on my Department's website. NEPS is currently conducting a review of the operation of the scheme and examining ways in which it may be used more flexibly to respond to any unmet needs for assessment.
