In February 1999, the Government took a decision to establish a national educational psychological service agency, NEPS. Under the terms of that decision, the agency has an overall target number of 200 psychologists and this target is to be achieved as soon as possible, beginning in the school year 1999-2000.
In the last few months, I have appointed 38 new psychologists to NEPS and a further ten are in process of being recruited. I also expect to be in a position to announce a further expansion of the service in the near future. The current situation is that NEPS provides a psychological service to all post-primary schools and approximately 725 primary schools. The expansion of NEPS is now well under way, with, at present, 75 psychologists serving with the agency. As soon as the newly appointed psychologists have completed their induction training, they will be deployed in schools.
The NEPS psychologists are being deployed in ten regions corresponding to the health board regions. It is envisaged that, by the end of its development period, the NEPS psychologists will be providing an educational psychological service to every school in the country.
I am aware of the difficulties that have been experienced by some schools in gaining access to psychological assessments, pending the appointment of the full quota of psychologists for NEPS. Two initiatives are aimed at meeting this need.
Firstly, a working group, including representatives of NEPS and of the health boards, has been set up by the management committee of NEPS. It is to consider joint structures and procedures that may ensure that children in urgent need of psychological assessment are not left without psychological support during the expansion phase of NEPS. It is expected that this group will give this task a high priority.
NEPS is also undertaking a pilot project with the aim of developing a strategy for responding to requests from schools not yet served by NEPS for urgent psychological assessments. This exercise will be completed early in the new year. If the results are satisfactory, consideration will be given to extending the arrangements to other areas of the country.
