Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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323. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average number of primary and post-primary schools, respectively allocated to each educational psychologist employed in the National Educational Psychological Service. [36622/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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324. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown of the number of educational psychologists employed in the National Educational Psychological Service, per county, in tabular form. [36623/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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325. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 618 of 9 September 2024, the details of the opportunities her Department has been exploring to increase the number of suitably qualified staff. [36624/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 323, 324 and 325 together.

Following a recent reconfiguration, NEPS is structured upon six regional divisions, with 22 local offices each catering for schools in the immediate locale/catchment area. The NEPS Head Office is situated in the Department’s complex in Marlborough St. Dublin.

With regard to the allocation of schools, each NEPS psychologist is assigned a number of schools in their geographical area based on a weighting process which takes into account enrolment numbers, school designation (primary/post-primary/special), DEIS status, gender mix and number of special classes. This system is designed to provide equitable access to NEPS by accounting for the diversity of support needs across Irish schools. As such, there is variation across the service in the number of schools assigned to each NEPS psychologist. Depending on demographics, the number of schools an individual psychologist may be allocated on average can be within a range of 3 to 35.

With regard to the breakdown of educational psychologists across the country, the total number of Educational Psychologists currently employed in NEPS stands at 238 which is a whole-time equivalent of 232. Given the regional structure, an Educational Psychologist can be assigned schools in more than one county. The number of Educational Psychologists in each of the six regions is given below.

In relation to workforce planning for the recruitment of educational psychologists, my Department has been actively exploring opportunities to increase the numbers of suitably qualified staff to strengthen the response to the educational psychological needs of children and young people in recognised primary and post-primary schools across the country. Since January 2023, NEPS has supported bursaries for Trainee Educational Psychologists who are enrolled in the University College Dublin Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology and Mary Immaculate College Limerick’s Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology. Those in receipt of a bursary commit to joining NEPS upon graduation. There are over 60 Trainee Educational Psychologists in receipt of a bursary who are expected to join NEPS upon graduation, with an additional 14 to be awarded bursaries from September 2024, bringing the total to 74.

Additionally, the Public Appointments Service commenced a recruitment campaign for Educational Psychologists at the end of 2023 and successful candidates from that panel are currently taking up positions in NEPS. It is expected that a further recruitment competition will be commenced by the Public Appointments Service early in 2025 and planning for this competition is already underway within the Department.

It may be of interest to the Deputy that further to the service outlined above, NEPS is leading on the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot. The pilot has two Strands. Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support a small number of children in all primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of a new type of support to schools from Education Wellbeing Teams and the introduction of Education Wellbeing Practitioners to support clusters of schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16.