Changes announced for General Assistant staffing entitlement
Schools have begun receiving information from the Department of Education (DoE) about staffing entitlement changes for General Assistants (GA).
Earlier this year, the DoE approached your union, and your elected delegates, to discuss a staffing entitlement review it was undertaking.
The long-held position of the Public Service Association (PSA) is that the GA Staffing Formula is inadequate for managing the workload and resourcing needs of schools. The union requested as part of the formal review, that the Department of Education consider a method that accounts for the complexity of the assets a GA must maintain rather than solely student numbers at a school.
An update on the changes were sent to schools last week. The changes will be implemented from 2026 and introduce a land-size loading for schools with fewer than 501 students. We welcome this improvement and the Departments recognition of the GA workload pressures by including land-size as a consideration. However, we acknowledge there is a genuine concern from members and delegates that these changes do not go far enough.
What are the pros?
- An increase of 100 Full Time Equivalent GAs across the state
- Positions are grandparented, so no current permanent GA will lose hours
- A pool of additional GA hours accessible via the Executive Director
Delegate feedback taken on board
As part of consultation with the PSA on the proposed changes, PSA Delegates highlighted that the step between 501 to 1500 students was a substantial jump, resulting in the Department providing an additional step at more than 1000 student enrolments.
Your PSA will continue to pursue improvements
The PSA has written to the Department to raise that, while removing the disparity between primary and secondary settings and reducing the ‘golden child’ impacts are positive steps, the union would like to see a model for assessing the workload impacts from the increasingly complex assets GAs now maintain.
PSA Delegates have raised that staff numbers, the age and variation of assets, as well as land size all have a sizable impact on the demands of the role.
GAs working across multiple schools
We are concerned there may be unintended negative impacts for GAs working across multiple schools on part-time arrangements, even where a school’s entitlement is increased.
An example of this would be a GA working two days at School A and three at School B to make up Full Time Equivalent hours. School A entitlement increases, and the GA can no longer fill this role as they have three full days at School B.
The PSA has sought a commitment from the Department to work through individual cases such as this constructively to ensure there are no detrimental impacts to current staff.
Impacts on schools with reduced UMM budget
We have also asked that the Department look to identify and communicate with those schools who are impacted by a reduction in Urgent Minor Maintenance (UMM) funding as part of these changes, to advise available options to minimise any adverse impact to current GAs.
What’s next?
Importantly for members, there will be further opportunities and discussions regarding GA entitlements including the long overdue review of your Role Description and classification so that it better reflects the scope and complexity of the work.
Finally, thank you to PSA GA Delegates for your invaluable insights and passionate advocacy during this process.
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