Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 681: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will explain the purpose of the recent change in the certification of completion of assessments under the scheme for the commissioning of individual psychological assessments whereby individual pupils are identified; if he will confirm such assessments are subject to the same degree of confidentiality as privately funded assessments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22654/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As 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. The SCPA was first put in operation for the 2001/02 academic year as a temporary measure in advance of the full staffing of the NEPS service.

As the number of psychologists employed by NEPS has increased over the past two academic years the proportion of pupils in schools to whom a NEPS psychologist is assigned has increase for 67% to a current level of 84%. The number of schools therefore availing of SCPA has dropped proportionately. It is my intention to continue to expand the number of NEPS psychologists and consequently as the balance has changes between both elements of the service it has been decided to more closely align the processes of both.

In this regard my Department took the opportunity during the current academic year to refresh the panel of SCPA psychologists and changes made to the Parental Consent Process which would allow for NEPS to receive a copy of the assessment report by a psychologist on the panel. Previously, copies were made available to the parent and the school involved and an anonymised certificate in respect of the assessment submitted to NEPS to allow for payment to the SCPA psychologist involved. The retention of such individual pupil records is a normal practice for NEPS psychologists and lends itself the maintenance of a continuous record of involvement with a student throughout their school career. Strict confidentiality is, of course, maintained in relation to these records.

The practice has now been extended to students who are assessed under the SCPA which, in turn, will enhance the future direct services provided by NEPS personnel to an increasing number of students and schools. In addition the change in practice in this regard also allows for more rationalised quality control on the range of assessments provided and paid for by my Department under the SCPA.