Education Department Staff

In reply to the Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (26 June 2024). (Estimates Committee A)

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills): I have been advised of the following:

The 45 FTE form part of the 100 FTE commitment. The target of 45 FTE has been slightly exceeded to include an additional 1.3 FTE. All these positions have been recruited since government was formed.

The following categories have been recruited to:

Social work duty line

An expanded social work duty line provides a statewide service to sites. This comprises three additional FTE for the social work duty line.

Aboriginal support and inclusion leads

Aboriginal support and inclusion leads are focused on helping ensure specialist supports for schools and students are culturally responsive to the needs of Aboriginal students, parents and staff. This comprises two FTE.

Specialist educators

Specialist educators are in metropolitan and regional education offices providing services and support to sites. Inaddition, specialist educators for Positive Behaviour for Learning have been employedto support schools to reduce exclusionary discipline. This comprises 15.5 FTE in total.

Partnership with Kornar Winmil Yunti (KWY)

The department is working with KWY, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation, and the Department of Human Services to pilot a new type of intensive service for Aboriginal families with children who are not attending school. This comprises three FTE within KWY.

Specialist supervision of the allied health school buy-in service

Schools and preschools can engage allied health providers to deliver additional support services tailored to their needs. A dedicated team of discipline leads has been established to work with schools to design their school buy-in service and support recruitment and retention of allied health professionals within their school. This comprises 4.9 FTE.

Specialist support to autism inclusion teachers

The autism inclusion multidisciplinary team provide direct support to teachers who take on the autism inclusion teacher role, through the autism networks. This comprises 4.9 FTE and is in addition to autism inclusion teachers in schools.

Flexible service response team

The flexible service response team has been established to increase access for students to specialist services where this can be challenging due to for example geographic location. This can be through providing access to telepractice together with fly-in, fly-out approaches. This comprises 12 FTE.

Principal Occupational Therapist

In Student Support Services, discipline leads provide discipline-specific leadership and support to practitioners in their field. The Principal Occupational Therapist ensures the workforce of occupational therapists is appropriately supported to deliver high quality and safe services to children and sites. This comprises one FTE.