§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what figures he has on the total numbers of children referred by their school to see educational psychologists and of those currently waiting to do so.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThis information is not collected centrally.
§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps are being taken to reduce the waiting lists for the school psychological service for pupils in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe management of its psychology service is a matter for the individual local education authority. The Department provides specific funds to local education authorities in England, under the grants for education support and training, for the training of educational psychologists. In the current year £2.8 million was made available for this purpose.
Education establishments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the respective Secretaries of State.
§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps to ensure that the shortfall in the take-up of grants for the initial training of educational psychologists goes to training prospective educational psychologists.
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§ Mr. Alan HowarthIn the current year, the grant for educational psychologists under the local education authority training grants scheme was sufficient to meet all local education authorities' needs. The small amount of grant not taken up by LEAs this year has been transferred to meet urgent needs in other national priority areas in the special education field.