On 31 July 2022, the NSW Education Minister announced a new staffing pilot in relation to trialing additional administrative support in schools, including an enhanced capability development program.

PSA staff and your Schools Departmental Committee Delegates sought an urgent briefing on the announcement, which was arranged on Monday 1 August 2022.

Concerns raised by the PSA included:

• Statements devaluing work performed by non-teaching staff (NTS) are unhelpful and inappropriate (e.g. teachers performing ‘low value’ activities, and ‘upskilling’ NTS to provide support with this)
• Offering parents and carers the opportunity to work at schools is misleading, as most schools have a policy not to employ parents from their school (some schools have already been inundated with calls from parents looking for a job!)
• The recruitment of additional executive staff (which is already underway with the introduction of Assistant Principals – Curriculum and Instruction, as well as many schools creating additional executive roles) creates an additional workload and need for administrative support within schools
• Current staffing formula does not meet the needs of schools and is woefully inadequate – all schools require additional support staff (PSA also enquired again about the findings of the Staffing Methodology Review and were assured that this sits entirely outside – the ‘Quality Time’ initiative…).

The Department provided the following information:

• The 200 positions to be allocated on a trial basis will be temporary, with the specific schools to participate in the pilot yet to be identified
• The department is looking to identify schools that perform well to inform ‘best practice’ to share across schools
• Use of additional staff will inform potential future staffing/investment
• The program is looking at what tasks can be shifted from teachers to SASS, and from school-based staff to being undertaken centrally (e.g. tree audits)
• Additional positions will depend on what will best meet the needs of the school – could be School Administrative Officer, School Administrative Manager, Business Manager, student support, dedicated support for execs, etc.
• A component of the pilot will be to look at who is doing what work and what additional work is being created
• The pilot gives a way in to providing release time for ‘capability uplift’ (time for NTS Professional Learning).

The PSA welcomes more support staff in schools – as long as the resources are implemented properly

The best solution for Public Education is to give all staff employed by the NSW Education department a decent pay rise. Also, the Government needs to employ more Permanent Teachers and Support Staff in NSW Schools. Temporary pilot programs with little detail seem to only have the March 2023 NSW election within sight.

This does not value or respect ALL Education staff employed within NSW Schools.

Next steps for the PSA

The union will write to the department outlining concerns raised by delegates and members and will request a schedule of meeting dates for further consultation as the initiative is meant to commence in Term 4 2022.

The PSA Schools Departmental Committee will meet on the 23 August 2022 to consider the proposal in greater detail and recommend an ongoing response on behalf of members.