National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS)

Overview of NEPS service

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) is the psychological service of the Department of Education and provides educational psychological support to primary, post-primary and special schools in Ireland.

Each psychologist is assigned to a group of schools. The NEPS Model of Service includes a Casework Service for individual children and young people and a Support & Development Service for school staff.

The focus of the NEPS Casework Service is to use a consultative, problem-solving approach to promote better understanding of the child or young person’s strengths and needs, to suggest interventions that may be helpful to include in the Student Support Plan, and to assist schools to implement, monitor and review those interventions. This work is done in partnership with school staff, parents and the child or young person themselves.

The focus of the NEPS Support & Development Service 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. This work also includes supporting schools to respond to Critical Incidents.

The focus is on empowering teachers to intervene effectively with pupils whose needs range from mild to severe and transient to enduring. NEPS encourages schools to implement a Continuum of Support with each school taking responsibility for providing universal and preventative approaches, as well as early assessment, educational planning and intervention for pupils with need. Teachers may consult their NEPS psychologist should they wish to at this stage in the process.

A child or young person who has not made reasonable progress following a school's best efforts in consultation with NEPS, may be prioritised for access to the NEPS casework service by the school. This system allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually.

Upcoming Events

NEPS have shared the following information about a series of upcoming training sessions focused on supporting children who are reluctant speakers / selectively mute at school - further details in flyer below.

These sessions are focused at Primary schools, however, we are included Post Primary schools on this notice in case there are any schools who would also welcome support in this area (please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are in a Post Primary school and would like further information on the supports available from NEPS).

Please click on this link to register - Registration Form