Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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559. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide, by county, a breakdown of the cost of running the National Educational Psychological Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24986/15]

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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560. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown, by hours, of the schools that the National Educational Psychological Service partakes in, and the costs of this, in counties Louth and Meath; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24987/15]

Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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561. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of assessments that were made by the National Educational Psychological Service in counties Louth and Meath, for the years 2011 to 2014, inclusive, and to date in 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24988/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 559 to 561, inclusive, together.

I can inform the Deputy that my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides an educational psychology service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases receive assessment services through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA). Under this scheme schools can have a student assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS, and NEPS will pay the psychologist the fees for this assessment directly.

In common with many other educational psychological services and best international practice, NEPS has adopted a consultative model of service. The focus is on empowering teachers to intervene effectively with pupils whose needs range from mild to severe and transient to enduring. Psychologists use a problem solving and consultative approach to maximize positive outcomes for these pupils. NEPS encourages schools to use a continuum based assessment and intervention process whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention for pupils with learning, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Teachers may consult their NEPS psychologist should they need to at this stage in the process. Only in the event of a failure to make reasonable progress, in spite of the school's best efforts in consultation with NEPS, will the psychologist become involved with an individual child for intensive intervention or assessment. This system allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually. It also ensures that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.

NEPS psychologists also provide a range of advisory and training services to teachers supporting the educational, social and emotional development of pupils at a whole-school, class and individual level. Additionally, NEPS psychologists process applications for all post-primary schools nationally on behalf of the State Examinations Commission (SEC) for students with Specific Learning Disabilities for Reasonable Accommodations in the Leaving Certificate examination and provide support, upon request, to schools experiencing critical incidents.

NEPS Psychologists are allocated schools based on a weighting process which takes into account school size, type, DEIS status, gender mix, geographical spread and the presence of special units and classes.

NEPS Psychologists hold planning meetings with their assigned schools at the commencement of each academic year to discuss and agree the schools' priority needs and their particular programme of service for the year and this will vary to a degree according to the order and complexity of those needs. Service delivery to schools, as described above may be, according to the dictates of staff maternity or sick leave for example, a mixture of NEPS staff support and SCPA.

Furthermore NEPS is regionally structured with 22 offices nationally serving the needs of schools in their respective catchment areas which can and do commonly cross county boundaries. Staff in these offices may also aggregate service across a cluster of schools (for training programmes) and so it is unfeasible to disaggregate overall service in terms of cost or time-input by school or county nor does NEPS attempt to do so.

I attach for the Deputy's information therefore, at Appendix A, an estimated cost by county of the overall NEPS service based on the weighting process, described above, and applied to the cost of the service in 2014 (the most recent complete year of operation) - some €17.036m which includes all the pay and non-pay (support) charge. In relation to NEPS time in-put into Louth and Meath schools the cumulative weighting scores by county for 2013/14 are provided for the Deputy's information.

I also attach at Appendix B a breakdown of assessments provided to pupils in Louth and Meath schools for the past five academic years, whether directly administered by NEPS psychologists or by SCPA panellists.

My Department remains committed to the maintenance of the NEPs service to schools and I can inform the Deputy that current NEPS psychologist staffing numbers stand at 183 (172 w.t.e.), including 5 temporary posts, the highest level since the establishment of the Service in 1999. Furthermore the process of engaging three additional psychologists is nearing completion.

Appendix A

Breakdown of NEPS Service by County 2013/14

Notes: 10,000 School Weighting Points are the equivalent of 1 w.t.e. NEPs psychologist providing some 180 days service p.a. to their assigned schools

Appendix B

Number of Educational Psychological Assessments delivered by academic year to students in Primary and Post-Primary schools in Counties Louth and Meath

Notes: (1) Count includes assessments delivered by NEPS assigned psychologists and SCPA scheme. (2) 2014-15 values are incomplete and will not be finalised until late Summer 2015.