Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 May 2010
198 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which requests have been made on a county basis for psychological assessment and or follow up procedures at primary and second level schools here in each of the past five years and to date in 2010; the degree to which such requirements have been met; her plans to meet such requirements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18608/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware 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). Schools that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them may avail of the SCPA, whereby the school can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved and paid for by NEPS.
In common with many other psychological services and best international practice, NEPS encourages a staged assessment process, whereby each school takes responsibility for 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. This system allows the psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually. It also ensures that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.
The document "Special Needs Education — A Continuum of Support", which has been circulated to all primary school teachers, demonstrates this process which moves from simple classroom based interventions to more specialised and individual interventions. These guidelines describe a graduated problem solving model of assessment and intervention in schools and comprise three distinct school based processes which are summarised below:
1. Classroom Support — is an intervention which is co-ordinated by the Class Teacher and is carried out in the regular classroom,
2. School Support — is an assessment and intervention process which is usually co-ordinated by the learning support/resource teacher working alongside the class teacher. Interventions at this stage will be additional to those provided through classroom support.
3. School Support Plus — is generally characterised by the school requesting the involvement by the relevant external service in more detailed assessment and development of intervention programmes. This level of intervention is for children with complex and/or enduring needs and whose progress is considered inadequate, despite carefully planned interventions at previous levels.
The staged model recognises that pupils present with a wide range of issues and difficulties and allows for their amelioration and intervention at the level most appropriate to the particular need.
NEPS psychologists provide both support and development service to teachers in accommodating the various needs at levels 1 and 2 of the staged model and provide advice in relation to appropriate intervention in relation to unnamed pupils or groups of pupils as well as servicing the identified needs at individual named pupil at level 3 up to and including full psychological assessment. The input in respect of stages 1 and 2 is therefore not recorded at individual pupil level by NEPS. It should be noted that even at level 3 the assessment may take a variety of forms depending on the pupils needs.
I include, for the Deputy's information, an account of the number of individuals who have been brought to the specific attention of the NEPS service for the years 2004/05 to 2008/09 and to date in 2009/10 which constitute the type and level of response at stage 3 of the above continuum process. Regional surveys undertaken in recent years would suggest that some 7,000 additional cases annually are raised by teachers / school authorities with NEPS psychologists in respect of unnamed pupils for general advice on how best to attend to their needs without recourse to direct consultation with or assessment of the pupil or pupils in question.
NEPS also provides support to the State Examinations Commission in making recommendations for students applying for special accommodation under the Reasonable Accommodation for State Examinations (RACE) scheme mainly at Leaving Certificate level. These are included in the following data.
While I am satisfied that the level of service currently being provided by NEPS to the school community is sufficient to the tasks my Department is committed to the continued development of the Service. The Deputy will no doubt be aware of the undertaking within the Renewed Programme for Government to an overall expansion of NEPS psychologist numbers to 210, currently NEPS staffing numbers stand at 157.
I can inform the Deputy that my Department and the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is currently actively engaging with six prospective recruits to NEPS, from an existing recruitment panel, for assignment in the near future.
Furthermore a new recruitment competition was set in train in February by PAS in conjunction with my Department's Personnel Section in order to establish a new panel from which the remaining vacancies may be filled. The closing date for applications in this regard is now past and it is envisaged that the vetting, interviewing and empanelling of suitable applicants will be completed in time to recruit new psychologists for the beginning of the new school year. This targeted expansion will ultimately allow to the assignment of a NEPS psychologist to all primary and post-primary schools and pupils nationally and afford a level of enhancement of service to Special Needs Units and Schools regionally.
|
SCPA |
NEPS |
Total |
|
|
2004/05 |
3,475 |
7,502 |
10,977 |
|
2005/06 |
4,068 |
7,939 |
12,007 |
|
2006/07 |
4,426 |
8,917 |
13,343 |
|
2007/08 |
4,609 |
9,307 |
13,916 |
|
2008/09 |
2,694 |
11,551 |
14,245 |
|
2009/10 |
1,547 |
4,577 |
6,124 |
(*)The current counts of referrals to NEPS and RACE cases do not reflect an accurate an accurate position as the data will be updated before by the end of the academic year.
