Education Schemes

88. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth the amount spent on the scheme for the commissioning of psychological assessments, SCPA, in each of the past five school years, broken down by primary and secondary and year, in tabular form. [74817/26]

Will the Minister of State outline the amount spent on SCPA assessments in each of the past five school years, broken down by primary and secondary and by year? This is an interim measure but my sense is it is increasing spending, with not enough of the necessary National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, supports going to children.

There are currently 242 educational psychologists employed in NEPS, who work across 4,000 schools. The scheme for the commissioning of psychological assessments, SCPA, supplements the capacity of NEPS to provide a casework service for children with the highest level of support needs. The scheme provides children and young people with access to a private educational psychologist on the SCPA panel for individual casework where a priority need is established. For schools currently without an assigned psychologist, requests for this support are discussed with a psychologist from the NEPS national advisory support service. While the SCPA provides very important additional support, the Department recognises that it is best if schools and students have access to a NEPS psychologist. This is why the Department has taken significant steps in recent years to increase psychologist supply through new professional doctorates in educational psychology programmes in Maynooth University and Dublin City University. The first graduates from the Maynooth programme will be available to work in NEPS from summer 2028, while the first student intake in Dublin City University commenced this month. To join the SCPA panel, private educational psychologists must meet qualification criteria set by the Department. The scheme is quality-assured by NEPS. My Department continues to promote the panel in order to recruit additional members. There are currently 53 psychologists on the panel, which represents an increase on previous years. In addition, in 2024, the fee paid to those on the SCPA panel was increased from €550 to €750. The specific information requested by the Deputy will be provided to him in tabular form.

If the Minister of State has them, I would like the headline figures for recent years. My sense is that the cost is increasing. This is an interim service that is availed of in the most serious of cases. It is reflective of a system that is under-resourced. Will all of the NEPS psychologists who are qualifying through the schemes come to work in the public system? Is there an attrition rate? To what extent is the Government increasing the number of NEPS psychologists in training?

This year, Dublin City University commenced enrolment for the first time. There are now two programmes, at Maynooth and Dublin City University. This work was done to ensure that we have enough educational psychologists across the system. We recognise that we need more educational psychologists across the education system. Private assessment is used when we cannot meet that need within the system, but our predominant aim is to make sure that we have the psychologists within the system to meet the need within it. These assessments can enable students and school communities to make the best possible decisions across it. On the other point the Deputy raised, we need to ensure that all trained educational psychologists and other graduates work within the education system and indeed the overall public service system. We have to work very hard and very carefully to make sure that we are recruiting all of those and retaining them within the public service.

When I speak to principals in my county of Meath, they tell me they cannot get access to NEPS, or to SCPA because it is heavily booked. There is a level of bureaucracy involved that puts a huge amount of responsibility on school principals and school leaders in identifying the psychologist, ensuring the paperwork is in order for payment and that type of thing. There is significant opportunity to address that. The education well-being practitioners in schools pilot is positive and has potential, but there is concern that that is where resources will be redirected in the future. Will there be sufficient psychologists in place? Has that been factored into the Department's planning for the expansion of schemes such as the education well-being practitioners in schools programme?

In each of the schemes being expanded across the education system, one of the first issues is whether we can meet that need with professional support for school communities. As the Deputy knows, school leadership and school communities across the country are working extremely hard. They are very conscientious in terms of how they meet the needs of their pupils. In expanding any of the schemes, we always have to determine whether we can meet the needs of that scheme by having the professionals on board in it. The Deputy mentioned principals he had spoken to. Our aim is to make sure that we have enough within the Department to support the school communities. That work is ongoing in expanding the supply. It is a hugely important piece not just on this but right across the Department of education to increase the supply of psychologists within the system. There is precious little reason to announce new schemes without having the supports available. We ensure that we work across government to do that.