The Special Education Working Group met last week at PSA House in Sydney, your School Learning Support Officer (SLSO) and SLSO Student Health Support (SHS) delegates worked through many workplace issues impacting members.

In this update:

• Consultation on SLSO Statement of Duties
• “Other related duties”: what can you be asked to do?
• Excursions and Overtime
• Buckling and Driving Buses
• School Crossings – keep yourself safe

Consultation on SLSO Statement of Duties

In 2022 following the finalisation of the School Administrative and Support Staff Award negotiations a new Statement of Duties for SLSOs was published by the Department of Education. The PSA was not provided an opportunity to consult on the document at that time. This year the department has agreed to enter into consultation around the Statement of Duties based on concerns raised by the union on behalf of members and delegates.

The PSA welcomes the opportunity to consult on the updating of the SLSO SoD. Since your SoD was updated in 2022 the differences between the SLSO and SLSO SHS roles has been an ever-present issue for our members schools.

When accepting the Departments invitation for consultation we reiterated the PSA position that ‘Health Support’ is not a broad umbrella term that refers to the many aspects of delivering support to students with health needs during the school day but directly replaced the Health Care Procedures.

“Other related duties”: what can you be asked to do?

It is important that you understand your statement of duties as this will give you confidence when discussing and negotiating the boundaries of your role. As union members we can’t rely on others to do this for us, we need to stand together and push back where appropriate.

An often used catch all when directing members to work outside their role is the reference on your Statement of Duties to “Other related duties”. If you are directed to perform other related duties as referenced in the Statement of Duties, the work must directly relate to the duties of your role. You cannot be directed to work in areas outside your Statement of Duties (SoD).

We encourage you to join the SLSOs PSA NSW facebook page and take up opportunities to hear from other SLSOs about their experiences and how they approach conversations where they are being asked to perform tasks outside their SoD. If you would like a copy of your SoD, or require support and guidance please contact the Member Support Centre.

Excursions – time off in lieu and overtime

SLSOs are entitled to paid additional hours or overtime when assisting students on school excursions/camps.

Approval for overtime payments when supporting on excursion outside of normal school working hours must be obtained prior to attendance. Forms for requesting Overtime or TIL are to be completed and signed by the Principal or supervisor, forms can be found on the intranet and with Human Resources. A detailed itinerary should be developed to clarify the SLSO’s role on each excursion or camp which considers the health care plans, behaviour plans, risk assessments and/or learning plans of individual students.

Time in Lieu (TIL) or payment of Overtime needs to be agreed prior to and calculated on the hours worked and rate of pay. Time in Lieu accrues at the Overtime rates and includes travel time. For example, where an employee is asked to attend school at 6am to get on the bus for an excursion. Overtime rates are clarified in Clause 20 of your Award, linked below.

Buckling/ Driving Buses

PSA maintains our long-held position that securing students into vehicles is not contained in the SLSO or SLSO SHS SoD and is therefore not the responsibility of our members. We acknowledge the Departments position that it is the schools responsibility to ensure students are safely secured in vehicles, however continue to highlight that accountability should reflect corresponding levels of authority.

SLSOs should not be driving buses, this is not referenced in the SLSO SoD and there is no requirement for an SLSO to hold a driver’s license. We therefore continue to reiterate that no SLSO should be transporting a busload of students, this duty should be directed to someone with a corresponding level of authority.

School Crossings

Supervising school crossings outside school property is not the responsibility of an SLSO. School Crossing Supervisors, or Lollipop people as you may know them, are employed under their own classification by Transport for NSW. Crossing duties require specific training, meaning if you have not undertaken this training, you are putting yourself or students at risk by undertaking work that is not within your duties.

Where schools require School Crossing Supervisors it is the responsibility of the School Executive to advocate their school’s need.

Link to your Award

Crown Employees (School Administrative and Support Staff) Award with updated rates of pay through to FY26/27 is linked HERE. We recommend bookmarking this page so you can easily find it when you need it.