Ms Margaret Grogan:

I will start with Jigsaw. There has been close collaboration between the services of the Department and Jigsaw. The Meath mental health project was a pilot project in which there was an integrated approach to addressing the needs of schools in respect of mental health. It involved the HSE, NEPS, SPHE support service, guidance counsellors, etc.

The learning from this has been collated and evaluated, and it will apply in future to collaborative work.

As services are localised and there is not a standard approach across the country, it is important that at a local level agencies and services come together depending on how they are configured. NEPS and the SPHE support service will be collaborating, where appropriate, with Jigsaw approaches. That will be informed by the learning that is already there.

As regards psychological and behavioural assessments, NEPS psychologists would be involved with assessment work. We do not automatically start doing psychological assessments. NEPS provides a framework through the continuum of support, which we are slowly rolling out to schools and getting them to buy into it. That is very much an early intervention, prevention approach so that we provide consultation, support and advice to schools as to how they can best use their existing resources to meet the needs of young people without resort to seeking a psychological assessment. In that way, we hope we will reduce the demand for psychological assessment. We will then be able to see the young people who need that individual approach in order to reduce that demand.

With regard to access to clinical assessment, we are engaged in conversation with CAMHS, the child and adolescent mental health services, and primary care psychology services. We are hoping to work together more closely with them. It is probable that some of the experience from the Meath mental health project would inform our thinking around that. However, we need to collaborate more with them as regards how to support young people who have severe difficulties. It is not just about external agencies, it is also about the schools' role in supporting those young people with external supports. The guidelines provide good evidence-based advice for schools on their role in supporting students to keep them in school.

As regards the number of assessments, we would not work like that. We do not have waiting lists, for example. We advise schools on how they can do the early intervention and assessment work themselves. We work towards building skills around that within the school.