Education and Child Development Department

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Has the government completed its relocation of 300 central office staff 'to work directly with schools', and where are those staff based? On 28 August last year, the department issued a media release which claimed the government would be 'relocating 300 staff from central office to work directly with schools to improve program delivery and teaching practices'.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:50): Yes, that is one of the objectives of the government in its refocusing of our education expenditure. My impression of the ways in which large institutions tend to go through cycles is that there is a centralisation push followed by a decentralisation push and that neither is perfection but both are required over the history of a department or an institution.

At present, we are in the process of reducing our expenditure in head office in Flinders Street, and that has been significantly in the corporate area, but what we are doing, as identified in the press release that was quoted, is working through the area of teaching and learning support that the department provides to schools and refining the offering, changing the personnel—and a number have indeed already gone back to schools—and also working towards a relocation of those staff. That last element is yet to occur.

We are working through locations that would be appropriate, and part of that is about maintaining the importance of having a single unit within the department but also being able to release it from the view of being held within Flinders Street, which has been regarded for a number of years as a place that is a little remote from the schools. The intention is to find a location outside of Flinders Street to house those teaching and learning staff and, in turn, that much of the work of those staff is done not only within that single unit but also working closely not just with schools but also with partnerships.

Partnerships are a mechanism that has been introduced, influenced substantially by Michael Fullan's work, who is a very good educator and reformist who has emphasised the importance of not only building up the school level but the community of education level. These partnerships go from preschools to primary schools to secondary schools within a single location. That is an important unit of education, because it means that the work being done at a high school has transparency all the way through to preschool, and the work that is done by the central office needs to support that activity. That is the direction in which we are going, and when I have a timeline that I can announce publicly or brief the member about, I shall do.