PSA Schools Need Us Campaign – Essential to the school community – June 2018 (PDF version)

Over the past 12 months, the PSA has been talking to members about their experiences working in schools every day.

We have heard from members right across NSW about the impacts of Local Schools Local Decisions, LMBR, the new HR/Payroll system and dramatically escalating reporting. We know this has led to unmanageable workloads for SASS staff from Coonabarabran to Cooma, Mullumbimby to Moruya and Penrith to Pyrmont.

And yet, many members still work in temporary arrangements, are expected to take on duties that they are not recognised for, and spend hours of their own time working without pay.

The PSA has been negotiating with the Department to fix these problems – this is what led to the recent injection of $3.18 million to help with workload caused by LMBR and other changes. But we want to do a lot more.

That is why the PSA is launching the Schools Need Us campaign.

The Schools Need Us campaign will raise the profile of what you do and how important you are to the school community and to education in NSW.

We must alert the community to the critical but often unseen work being undertaken by our members in schools including General Assistants, School Learning Support Officers, Aboriginal Education Officers, Psychologists and Business Managers alongside the vital Administrative Staff including School Administrative Managers and School Administrative Officers who are essential in the delivery of quality services to children.

First we must properly demonstrate how widespread these issues are. To do that, we need to hear from the people that are experiencing them, you.

If you can spare just 10 minutes of your time to fill in our simple survey, we can continue to fight for the things that we know members care about; permanency, manageable workloads, respect in the workplace and recognition for the invaluable work that you all do to support the education of NSW’s children every single day.

This survey will be confidential. We will not use your name or details but we can use the outcomes of the survey to help us to lobby for better support and more secure work for you.

A survey link has been emailed to schools members.