Education and Child Development Department Staff

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. How many attendance officers are currently working in the education department and how many of the 60 behaviour support coaches, promised to be engaged by the end of last year, has the department, in fact, employed?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (15:02): I believe elements of that question have been asked previously, but I am happy to answer them again. There are 22 FTE attendance officers, 19 of which are known as attendance officers and the other three are senior social workers who manage the attendance officer program. When the honourable member refers to 60 behaviour coaches, there are 30 behaviour coaches and 60 wellbeing practitioners who were coming in by the end of the year, so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that that is what he was referring to. From memory, 57 FTE were employed by the end of the year, with the remainder being in process at present.