Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 January 2012
198 Deputy Jack Wall asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding an application for assessment in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4870/12]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that all primary and post primary schools have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are on the Department's website. Where a NEPS psychologist is not assigned to a school, authorities therein may access psychological assessments through SCPA. Under this scheme schools can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS, and NEPS will pay the psychologist the fees for this assessment directly.
It should also be noted that in common with many other psychological services, NEPS encourages a staged assessment process, whereby each school takes responsibility for a pupil's initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention in consultation with their assigned NEPS psychologist. Only if there is a failure to make reasonable progress in spite of the school's best efforts, will a child be referred for individual psychological assessment. It is the responsibility of the school Principal in the first instance to identify and prioritise pupils for assessment under the process described above.
I have made enquiries in relation to the child detailed in the question and understand that he was the subject of an educational psychological assessment through NEPS in the past year. Should his parents have any concerns or queries in regard to the results of this process I would advise that they communicate them to the Principal of the school involved. The NEPS psychologist currently assigned to Levistown N.S. is available to provide any assistance or clarification to them in this connection.
