Question Without Notice No. 315 asked in the Legislative Council on 9 May 2018 by Hon Donna Faragher
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION — SAVINGS MEASURES 315. Hon DONNA FARAGHER to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to the information provided on 10 April 2018 in response to question without notice 198, specifically the table at (3) titled ''Internal Department budget savings cease or reduction''.
(1) Will the minister provide specific detail on the impact of each of the following department budget savings identified in the table at (3) —
(a) Switch program;
(b) professional learning support;
(c) specialist learning program areas;
(d) �establishment grant; and
(e) student support services?
(2) Have the budget savings referred to in (1) already been implemented; and, if yes, when; and, if not, when will they be implemented?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) (a) �For the Switch program it is $3.75 million. The Switch program commenced in 2013 as a key strategy to support the move of year 7 students to secondary settings by offering training to support teachers to transition from primary to secondary teaching. As the transition of year 7 students to secondary settings has occurred, this funding is no longer required.
(b) Professional learning support of $4.549 million encompasses the following. Teacher development schools, $4.089 million. In 2018–19, there will be 44 teacher development schools. The total of 44 teacher development schools includes seven DigiTech schools established for 2018–19 and nine primary language schools established for 2018 only. Teacher development schools continue to cover all learning areas, but with the phase 1 and 2 learning areas of the Western Australian curriculum now fully implemented, support in these areas has been reduced.
For teacher relief for Australian curriculum support it is $135 000. Teacher relief to support delivery and attendance at the department's professional learning has been halved for the 2018–19 financial year and removed across the forward estimates as the Western Australian curriculum implementation will be completed in full by this time.
For teacher relief for the Aboriginal professional learning program it is $75 000. From 1 January 2019, funding for the backfill, if required, of Aboriginal support staff to attend professional learning will be met by schools rather than being centrally funded.
For school-based professional learning facilitators it is $250 000. The use of school-based facilitators to provide components of the graduate teacher professional learning program will cease from 2019. The program will be delivered by staff within the graduate teacher team and contractors, where required.
(c) For specialist learning program areas it is $5.325 million. The previous government announced new specialist programs for students with autism spectrum disorder to be set up in schools to provide more help for students with learning difficulties. These new programs were funded through an underspend in the department's overall budget for students with disabilities. Five programs are operating in 2018 and a further 11 will be set up by 2020 in both primary and secondary schools. They will provide a seamless education across kindergarten to year 12 for students with ASD. As the new kindergarten–year 6 and years 7–12 programs are set up, some existing programs catering only for kindergarten to preprimary will cease to avoid duplication of services.
(d) The establishment grant is $1.65 million. The department provides an establishment grant to assist new schools to prepare for commencing operation. As part of the savings measures announced in December 2017, a reduction of 10 per cent will occur to the grant provided to new schools from 2019.
(e) For student support services it is $1.2 million. Under the previous government, the department's approach to support services for students with high behavioural needs was reformed and restructured. This included establishing a centralised support model—School of Special Educational Needs: Behaviour and Engagement—the Midland Learning Academy and expansion of the former behaviour centres, now engagement centres. Prior to these additional services, an annual budget was held to support schools with students who demonstrated high behavioural needs. This budget has been adjusted to reflect the increased support to schools provided by new services.
(2) The detail regarding the timing of the implementation of the budget savings is included in the responses to part (1) above.