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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-03 Daily Xml
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EDUCATION AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. R.B. Such:

That this house calls upon the Minister for Education and Child Development to significantly increase the availability of counsellors, psychologists and mental health professionals for all E&CD schools.

(Continued from 15 March 2012.)

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (12:22): I was very interested in the contribution made by the member for Fisher on this issue, and I know that he has a real interest, and also a background, in the education system. However, in this particular case I do not support his motion that calls on the Minister for Education and Child Development to significantly increase the availability of counsellors, psychologists and mental health professionals for all schools. While this might seem like a good idea, I think just the resource issue in itself would be of concern.

I know the new Department for Education and Child Development is looking at a whole range of services in education, particularly in welfare and health. Their reform is still, as I understand it, in the implementation stage and there is an alignment of services that is being looked at to increase the capacity of the department and support the schools.

The creation of the Department for Education and Child Development was a very deliberate one on the part of the government and has created significant new opportunities to bring together the expertise of counsellors, psychologists, family support workers, and maternal and child health nurses with other allied health professionals and educators in the schools and early childhood services.

I am very pleased to say that this is a major reform. In fact, I am told that it is unique in Australia. It is driven by the clear evidence that the integration has benefits for all children and that the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children gain the greatest benefit when professionals are able to work in a multidisciplinary team on their behalf. The change will mean that children and families will be able to get services they need more easily. The services offered by counsellors, psychologists and educators will be joined up and integrated with one another so that families needing help will not have to tell their stories over and over again. I know that members in this house would understand the frustration for constituents in having to do that.

The government believes that children and young people in need will be less likely to fall through the cracks or become lost because of separate agencies that do not work together. When services are delivered by separate agencies, they quite often overlap or duplicate each other, and it is believed that when professionals and educators are free to work together the problem can be eliminated.

A new team Integrating Services Improving Outcomes, led by Anne Millard, has been created within education and child development to scope where current services are placed, investigate how they can be integrated, and how current positions can be positioned more effectively for individual children. It is believed that better results for children and young people will not flow from adding extra resources to a fragmented and inefficient system, but they will flow from using our existing resources and expertise more efficiently by putting children and young people at the centre, and by working in real partnerships with families.

Education's Regional Support Services respond to referrals from pre-schools and schools across 12 regions. Referrals are allocated to multidisciplinary teams consisting of student attendance counsellors, Aboriginal inclusion officers, behaviour support coordinators, disability coordinators, hearing services coordinators, psychologists, social workers and speech pathologists. Support for schools is also provided through 273 school counsellor salaries.

In conclusion, the government does not support the motion, not because it does not recognise the important role of counsellors, psychologists and mental health professionals but because we believe that the new department is the way in which we will be able to deliver more efficiently and target people in need in a more efficient way.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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