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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 423 asked in the Legislative Council on 13 May 2020 by Hon Donna Faragher

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — SCHOOLS — CLEANING

423. Hon DONNA FARAGHER to the Minister for Education and Training:

I refer to the new cleaning regimes that have been implemented in public schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(1) Since April 2020 —

(a) how many additional cleaners have been employed by the department;

(b) how many cleaners already employed by the department have increased their working hours;

(c) how many contract cleaning staff have been employed; and,

(d) how many cleaners in the department's pool can be diverted to schools that request additional assistance?

(2) Have any schools requested more cleaners in addition to those that have been allocated in response to the pandemic or any other additional cleaning support since the commencement of term 2; and, if so, how many and have all requests been accommodated?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) (a)–(b) The department has allocated an additional 1 108 full-time equivalent of cleaner time to schools in response to the revised cleaning regime for term 2 in 2020 in response to COVID-19. When compared with term 1, for the pay of 14 May 2020, an additional 864 FTE of cleaning time will be paid. This comprises 344 FTE of new and casual cleaners and 520 FTE of existing cleaners who have had their hours increased.

(c) If schools require the services of a contract cleaning company, each school will enter directly into a contract with the company; the process is not managed centrally.

(d) As of 8 March 2020, there are 1 400 applicants in the department's cleaner pool.

(2) There is no outstanding request for additional cleaning support. Schools have met the regime through the allocated additional cleaning FTE or may have used contracted cleaners. Some schools may not have been required to use their entire site, resulting in some saving of total cleaning time. This time will be available to be reallocated to the revised cleaning regime for the areas of the school that were operational. In addition to the 1 108 FTE of cleaner time allocated to schools on 23 April 2020, a further 49 FTE of cleaner time was subsequently made to accommodate schools with split sites and those with a high proportion of students with disabilities, and to facilitate the reopening of residential and agricultural colleges.