Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 461: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the average waiting time for an assessment under the National Education Psychologist Service in County Kildare; the number of educational psychologists for County Kildare; the number of schools which have no direct service in the county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18350/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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All primary and post primary schools in County Kildare have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA) that is administered by NEPS and full details of which are available on my Department's website.

In addition, NEPS provides a service to every school in the event of a critical incident regardless of whether the school already has a dedicated service from a NEPS psychologist. Also in relation to all schools, NEPS processes applications for Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations and responds to queries and requests for assessments in relation to individual children from other sections of my Department and from the specialist agencies.

According to the latest information, approximately 50% of schools in County Kildare (64 schools out of a total number of 129) have access to a dedicated service from NEPS and this represents more than 65% of the student population. Five NEPS psychologists (4.4 whole time equivalents) are currently involved in servicing County Kildare.

In common with many other psychological services, NEPS operates a staged model of service to schools, whereby an initial referral usually leads to a consultation and provision of advice to teachers and parents on appropriate teaching and management strategies. Progress is kept under review and only those children who fail to respond to these interventions will need to see a psychologist. The psychologists do not keep waiting lists of children requiring assessment in the sense of lists of names that are worked through in 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.

Since the establishment of the NEPS in 1999, the number of NEPS psychologists has increased from 43 to 122 at present. The Public Appointments Service recently concluded a new recruitment competition for the appointment of Educational Psychologists to NEPS. Regional panels have been established to allow my Department give greater priority in filling vacancies to areas with the greatest need. My Department is currently in the process of recruiting a further nine psychologists.