The National Educational Psychological Service, 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. Primary schools may also have access to psychological assessments through the health boards, voluntary bodies under their aegis, the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, SCPA, and through private practitioners. Given the variety of referral agencies, it is not possible to estimate the length of the waiting list for psychological assessment.
The educational psychologists in NEPS address the need for psychological assessments in the schools they serve and 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.
NEPS has not yet reached its full staffing complement and I intend to allow for continuing recruitment of psychologists, subject to the availability of resources. Pending the expansion of NEPS to all schools in the country, my Department has allocated funding for the commissioning of psychological assessments by schools from private practitioners. NEPS has issued details of how to avail of this scheme, SCPA, 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 is now at implementation stage. It includes recommendations for effective protocols in relation to referrals and waiting lists.