Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 November 2018
136. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the rationale for no waiting list being kept for NEPS services; the method by which delivery of NEPS services are measured to ensure delivery of services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49605/18]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware NEPS is a school-based educational psychological service, which supports the personal, social and educational development of all children, having particular regard for children with special educational needs (SEN) and those at risk of marginalisation due to educational disadvantage. NEPS also has a particular focus on supporting schools to promote the wellbeing of all children and young people. The scope of the NEPS service is broad and requires NEPS to work in a cross-cutting, collaborative manner with different sections of the DES and its agencies, and with service providers external to the DES.
My Department, through the Special Education Teacher Model, has set out the Continuum of Support framework to assist schools in identifying and responding to the diverse needs of all learners. This framework recognises that special educational needs occur along a continuum, ranging from mild to severe, and from transient to enduring, and that students require different levels of support depending on their identified educational needs. The Continuum of Support enables schools to identify and respond to needs in a flexible way. This means that needs can be responded to as early as possible. My Department supports schools to implement a continuum of support through the deployment and front-loading of some 13,350 special education teachers, including 9255 allocated to primary schools, and 4130 allocated to post primary schools. Additionally, a total of 15,000 Special Needs Assistants are also available to allocate to schools. This overall framework of support ensures that all children access an appropriate level of support in school, with students with the greatest level of need having access to the greatest levels of support. My Department further supports schools to provide a continuum of support for all learners, through the provision of support services, including an educational psychological service, NEPS.
NEPS does not maintain waiting lists, but instead, provides a consultative, tiered model of service to schools, underpinning schools’ provision of a continuum of support. This model of service is in line with international best practice for the effective and efficient delivery of educational psychological services that best meet the needs of all pupils/students in schools. It allows NEPS psychologists to support schools to provide an effective continuum of support. At a whole-school level the focus of NEPS is on promoting inclusive practice in schools, ensuring appropriate support structures are in place and building capacity to provide universal, evidence-based approaches and early intervention to promote academic and social/emotional competence and well-being for all. This includes the provision of training in the Incredible Years Teacher programme, the Friends programmes and support for schools in the event of a critical incident. This is a crucial element of the support that NEPS provides, leading to increased capacity within the system to provide high-quality early intervention and prevention in an effective manner.
Schools are encouraged to engage in initial assessment, educational planning and intervention for pupils with learning, emotional or behavioural difficulties, documented in a Student Support file. Teachers may consult their NEPS psychologist should they need to at this stage in the process. Only in the event of a failure to make reasonable progress, in spite of the school's best efforts, in consultation with NEPS, will the psychologist become directly involved with an individual child for more intensive support (casework). This system allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually.
The measure of NEPS output ranges across all aspect of the service as described above. For example in the last academic year NEPS psychologists undertook direct casework with 8,288 pupils/students, and it is estimated that a further 25,100 teachers were supported by NEPS via consultation or training.
