Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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498. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of NEPS assessments that have been provided in schools to date in 2025; the locations of each; her plans to increase NEPS assessments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61244/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for his question regarding my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).

I would like to take this opportunity to outline the work of NEPS.

All schools have access to:

General support and advice from a NEPS psychologist, either through the school’s assigned psychologist or through the NEPS Advisory Support Line. The NEPS Advisory Support line provides access for schools to support and advice from a Senior Educational Psychologist in NEPS via a designated phone line available from Monday to Friday;

Support from a NEPS psychologist in the event of a Critical Incident;

National and Regional Support and Development service for school staff, which is advertised through the Education Support Centres of Ireland and covers areas such as trauma informed practice, cluster group support for post-primary special education teachers and special class teachers, training for Student Support Teams and supporting reluctant school attendance/school avoidance behaviour; and

Access to either a NEPS psychologist or a SCPA psychologist for individual pupil casework where a priority need is established. SCPA (the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments) is operated through the use of a panel of psychologists who must meet qualification criteria set by the Department. It is an interim measure intended to supplement the NEPS service and meet current urgent needs for psychological assessment of children and young people.

Assessments are only one aspect of the NEPS service. Children and young people do not require a psychological assessment or a diagnosis in order to access additional support at school. The school-based problem-solving process involving assessment, intervention and review is recorded in the school Student Support File along with the child’s Student Support Plan. This process begins prior to any request for formal involvement of the NEPS psychologist. The psychologist may work directly with the child/young person, known as direct casework and this may includes assessment, or the psychologist may work through teachers or teachers/parents to provide a psychological service for a child/young person, known as indirect casework.

Another important aspect of the work of NEPS psychologists is Support and Development Service. The aim of this work is to help enhance school systems, to maximise a whole-school approach to creating school environments that are inclusive, flexible and responsive to the needs of all, and to build school capability to provide evidence-informed prevention and early intervention support as part of the Continuum of Support framework.

NEPS also leads on the counselling in primary schools pilot. The pilot consists of two strands. Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support small numbers of children in schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. In October 2024, my Department announced the extension of Strand 1 of the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot to 61 urban DEIS primary schools. These schools, in Dublin North City and Dublin South-West, have been identified by the Department as supporting children from areas with some of the highest levels of disadvantage in the State. In the 2024/2025 school year, over 400 counselling sessions have taken place and at least 56 children have availed of counselling provision in these areas.

Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of Education Wellbeing Teams to support 78 schools in cluster areas in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. To date, 20 Education Wellbeing Practitioners have been recruited. The focus of the support provided is on strengthening whole-school preventative approaches. This includes the provision of psycho-educational support for parents and teachers and the provision of early intervention on an individual and group basis to children with mild to emerging need using low-level therapeutically informed approaches.

The pilot is currently being externally evaluated by the Centre for Effective Services. It is anticipated that an evaluation report will be completed by Q4 2025. Through this evaluation the Department are confident that valuable learning will be gathered that will inform future policy and provision in this area.

In addition to the Counselling and Mental Health supports for primary schools, the Department of Education and Youth in partnership with Jigsaw have launched Neart, a national programme of mental health and wellbeing resources and training for post-primary schools. The programme complements the supports in schools such as the provision of guidance counselling and the work of NEPS, as well as other wellbeing programmes and initiatives including Student Support Team training.

On the Deputy's query about increased capacity in NEPS, my Department is making every effort to recruit additional educational psychologists. 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. This has also been extended to students enrolled in the new professional doctorate in educational psychology in Maynooth University. Those in receipt of a bursary commit to joining NEPS upon graduation. There are over 80 Trainee educational psychologists in receipt of a bursary who are expected to join NEPS upon graduation.

The Public Appointments Service recently concluded a recruitment campaign for educational psychologists and successful candidates will shortly be appointed.