I propose to take Questions Nos. 99, 118 and 119 together.
The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of my Department provides a school-based psychological service to all recognised primary and post-primary schools through the application of psychological theory and practice to support the wellbeing, and the academic, social and emotional development of all learners.
The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:
- Psychological support in the event of a Critical Incident
- A Casework Service for individual children where there is a need for intensive consultation and assessment
- A school staff Support and Development Service, to build school capability to provide a comprehensive continuum of support in schools and
- Ongoing access to advice and support for schools.
This overall approach allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent individual cases and, through supporting school staff, to benefit many more children than could be seen individually.
In 2021 the NEPS casework service extended to over 8,500 students. Additionally, under the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA) process, private psychologists provided assessment to schools for over 900 students. Furthermore, the NEPS Support and Development service reaches an estimated 25,000 teachers annually.
NEPS was allocated a budget of approximately €24 million in 2022 to deliver its essential service.
There is currently in the region of 225 whole-time equivalent NEPS educational psychologists employed across the 8 NEPS regions, delivering a psychological service to our schools, having grown from a base of 173 posts in 2014.
As part of Budget 2023, provision for an additional 54 educational psychologists was announced to strengthen the NEPS service overall, and in particular to provide strengthened services for special schools and special classes.
A working group in the Department has been examining the matter of how the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) can continue to recruit adequate numbers of suitably qualified staff and continue to respond to the educational psychological needs of children in recognised primary and post-primary schools across the country.
The group has agreed on a number of actions that must be taken to address supply issues in the medium to long term. These include the development of a workforce plan for educational psychologists within the Department of Education and work has begun with other Government Departments to advance this.
A number of options were considered to address some immediate supply issues. Following analysis of these, it was decided that the Department would use some available NEPS funding to sponsor a cohort of third year students of the Educational Psychology Doctoral programme in University College Dublin (UCD) and Mary Immaculate College (MIC) University of Limerick, for the academic year 2022/23 by providing a contribution towards their fees and associated expenses. The workforce planning group referred to above will be asked to make some interim recommendations in Q2 of next year regarding any other short-term measures required in advance of their final report. It is envisaged that funding supports for students on the educational psychological doctorate programme will be considered as part of this process.
In the interim, given the particular time pressures for students in third year of the programme, interviews will be held in the coming months to provide financial support to those students of Educational Psychology, currently on training placements in NEPS who are due to complete their doctoral training programme in 2023. Details will be made available in the coming weeks.
As part of this process, officials in the Department will consult with stakeholders as appropriate.
