Legislative Council Thursday 1 July, 2021

Mr GAFFNEY on behalf of Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

Regarding policy statements relating to the 2021 election specifically the Investing in Quality Education and Schools Policy, the statement noted:

Since our election in 2014, we have employed more than 600 full-time additional education staff, including 259 teachers, 250 teacher assistants, 80 professional support staff, 42 school nurses and 45 administration staff. Questions to the honourable leader are:

(1) How many employees in each area listed above were appointed in each year - listed separately since 2014?

(2) What is the net increase in education staff across each area listed above?

(3) How many staff have resigned, retired or have gone on long service or long-term sick leave in each of the years listed since 2014?

ANSWER

Thank you, member for Mersey, on behalf of the member for Murchison. The answer to this question is heavy with tables, therefore I seek leave to table the answers and have them incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

Incorporated answer below

(1) The total appointments made for permanent vacancies that were advertised and filled since 2014 are outlined below.

1. The Professional support staff quoted in the question includes social workers, speech pathologists, school psychologists and nurses.

2. The teachers total represents base grade appointments only.

(2) The net increase in actual paid FTEs from March 2014 to March 2020 is outlined below.

The movement in total budgeted full-time equivalents allocated for school nurses only between 2014 and the commencement of the 2021 school year is 42.70 FTE.

(3) The table below show the overall employee separations split by resignations and retirements, together with the number of employees who have proceeded on long term* sick (personal) leave between 2014 and 2020.

It is important to note that simply subtracting these data from the raw permanent appointments on question one won’t equate to the net increase figure.

This is due to a range of factors, including that Table 1 show the filling of permanent vacancies, and doesn’t include temporary or fixed-term contracts, which are included in Table 3, as well as other variations between pay periods, and people returning from long-term leave.

*Note: long-term has been determined based on a single leave booking of 20 business days or greater