§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list by local education authority the ratio of educational psychologists to children and young people in the age range 0 to 19 years. [36245]
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§ Mr. RichardsThe information is as follows:
Local Education Authority Number of full-time equivalent educational psychologists in post at January 1994 Ratio of educational psychologists to population (estimated, June 1993) aged 0 to 19 years Clwyd 17 1:6100 Dyfed 13 1:6600 Gwent 20 1:5800 Gwynedd 6 1:9800 Mid Glamorgan 15 1:9600 Powys 5 1:5800 South Glamorgan 10 1:10900 West Glamorgan 12 1:7700 Wales 98 1:7600 Source:
STATS2 form; Registrar General's mid-year population estimates.
§ Mr. GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will make a statement on the additional duties placed on educational psychologists since 1978; and what action he proposes to take over the ratio of educational psychologists to young people in the age range 0–19 years of 1:5,000 recommended in the Warnock report. [36243]
(2) if he will make it his policy to change the recommended ratio of educational psychologists to children from 1:5,000 to 1:4,000; and what would be the additional cost to each local education authority to meet such a target. [36242]
(3) what assessment he has made of the number of educational psychologists that each local education authority will require to carry out its legal responsibilities under the code of practice for the identification and assessment of special educational needs. [36244]
§ Mr. RichardsThe roles and responsibilities of educational psychologists reflect the statutory and non-statutory service provided for those with special education needs, which have significantly improved since 1978. The number of educational psychologists employed by each LEA is a matter for those LEAs.
The Welsh Office continues to support financially the initial training of educational psychologists but I have no plans at present to make recommendations on the ratio of educational psychologists to children and have made no estimate of the additional costs of adopting the ratio suggested by the hon. Gentleman.
§ Mr. GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list by local education authority the number of educational psychologists employed in each of the last 10 years; and what was the proportion of men to women in each year. [36238]
§ Mr. RichardsData have been collected centrally since 1992 but gender is not distinguished. Complete figures for 1995 have not yet been returned.
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Number of full time equivalent educational psychologists in post at January Local education authority 1992 1993 1994 Clwyd 19 20 17 Dyfed 8 10 13 Gwent 18 21 20 Gwynedd 6 5 6
Number of full time equivalent educational psychologists in post at January Local education authority 1992 1993 1994 Mid Glamorgan 15 15 15 Powys 4 4 5 South Glamorgan 10 10 10 West Glamorgan 10 10 12 Wales total 90 95 98 Source:
STATS2 form.