Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 112: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the average waiting time for an assessment under the NEPS system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5572/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department's National Educational Psychological Service, 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.

Children who manifest very special needs in school and who have not been previously assessed by a psychologist and are brought to the attention of a NEPS psychologist by the principal teacher will normally be assessed by the psychologist within that school term. In the case of schools that do not currently have NEPS psychologists assigned to them, such schools have access to educational psychological assessments through the scheme for commissioning psychological assessments, SCPA. Under this scheme, schools can commission assessments from a member of the panel of private practitioners approved by NEPS and NEPS will pay the fees directly to the psychologists concerned. Details of this scheme, including the conditions that apply to it, are available on my Department's Website.

As the arrangements for assessments under the SCPA scheme are made between school principals and individual private practitioners, information on the average waiting time for such psychological assessments is not available in my Department.