Special needs pupils denied services

THOUSANDS of primary schoolchildren with special needs are being denied vital treatment because of Government delays in providing psychological assessments.

According to school principals, psychological services are being delivered “like war-time rations,” with parents and the St Vincent de Paul society asked to pay for private assessments.

The Government had committed to raising the number of school psychologists to 200 by the end of 2009, but to date the level is at 138.

More than €100,000 was spent by the St Vincent de Paul in 2006 on psychological assessments for vulnerable children, while last year the society spent up to €50,000 in the Dublin area alone for the service. It’s understood that, by September of this year, 80% of the student population will be covered by the service.

Recruitment of new psychologists has proven difficult because of professionals’ reluctance to give up private practice.

According to the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, “not enough is being done at government level” to provide resources in this area for children.

“Schools, principals, teachers and children have nothing but praise for the National Educational Psychological Service [NEPS],” said network PRO and Dublin-based former principal John Curran yesterday.

“The only criticism is that they want more service, not less. Principals tell us that there can be significant delays in accessing services from NEPS where they have a NEPS psychologist assigned and the situation is even worse in schools where the NEPS service is not available.”

There is also a “pressing need” for clinical psychologists, child psychiatrists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, play therapists, counsellors and translators for the country’s schoolchildren.

St Vincent de Paul president Professor John Monaghan said that, while improvements have been made to the system, the charity is still paying for hundreds of psychological assessments for children. “It still raises the question about the inordinate delays,” he said.

The St Vincent de Paul holds regular meetings with NEPS and department officials in an attempt to maintain improvements.

The Department of Education said that “a significant expansion” in the number of NEPS psychologists is under way, “with a view to all schools receiving a direct service within the next two years”.