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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-05 Daily Xml
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Mental Health and Learning Support Specialists

Mr BROWN (Florey) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Education, training and Skills. Can the minister update the house on the government's commitment of 100 new mental health and learning support specialists in our public schools?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:42): I thank the member for Florey for this very important question and for his advocacy for students and young people in the fair seat of Florey. Of course, as the Minister for Education, my primary concern—my number one priority—will always be the wellbeing of our students and our staff in our education system regardless of whether they are in the public system, the Catholic system or the independent system.

I have been very clear to say in my public remarks so far that if there were to be a theme from me, as the new minister in this role, it is to make sure that every time we are talking about academic attainment and academic results, which of course are important—I very much want to see our NAPLAN results in South Australia improve, and our PISA results, and the Premier has been very clear about his desire in those areas too—we can't expect those results to be trending up if the wellbeing of our students and the staff who teach them is trending down. That has never been more important that it is now 2½ years into a global pandemic.

That is why we took a very comprehensive package to the election to improve the wellbeing of South Australian public students and staff. That included a commitment to introduce an autism lead teacher in every public primary school, and every public Reception to 12 school as well; a royal commission into the early years to give best support to kids in the first 1,000 days of their lives—because we know just how crucial those first 1,000 days are—improving permanency for teachers; and, of course, 100 new mental health and learning support specialists in our public schools. We are not wasting any time in rolling these out. We know that we have to strike while the iron is hot. We know that the need is there right now, and we can't waste any time on delivering on these important commitments.

That's why last Tuesday I joined the Premier and the Deputy Premier in the seat of Port Adelaide at Ocean View College, a fantastic public school in South Australia, to announce the commencement of the rollout of the mental health and learning support specialists we committed to before the election. We were delighted to announce that 55 FTEs of the 100 new mental health and learning support specialists we committed to will be mental health professionals. This is because we know there are some really significant challenges out there at the moment in terms of our young people's mental health.

In fact, about one in seven children and adolescents aged between four and 17 have recently experienced a serious mental health episode in Australia. About half of all serious mental health issues in adulthood begin before the age of 14. I have also been really alarmed, as I am sure all members of this place would be, to hear stories and anecdotal data about children as young as eight or nine years of age with suicidal ideation. I know there are many parents in this place. I can't as a parent myself imagine anything more frightening than having a kid of eight or nine years of age who is contemplating taking their own life. We have to take action, we have to do it right now and we have commenced that.

We have announced that we will be having a pilot to make sure that the broader rollout, which will commence next year, happens as we want it to happen. We are doing a pilot make sure that the specialists we are providing, as part of the 100 FTEs, the different professions and disciplines, are the right ones. That pilot in six clusters of schools will commence in terms 3 and 4 of this year ahead of the wider rollout next year.

Ocean View will be part of that pilot. I know that the member for Florey will be pleased to know that Para Hills High, where we visited together just on Friday, will be a part of it too, as will LeFevre High School, Seaford Secondary College, Parafield Gardens, Balaklava High School, Clare High School, John Pirie Secondary College and Penola High School, just to name a few.

The idea here, of course, is to do a pilot to make sure that we are meeting the need in those schools and that the disciplines and professions we are rolling out as part of this commitment are the right ones. I am really pleased that we have started work already so early in the life of this Malinauskas government.

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