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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-08 Daily Xml
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Schools, Specialist Support

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the parliamentary secretary regarding specialist support in schools.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The government made an election commitment to spend $50 million to fund 100 additional speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists and counsellors for the public school system. My questions to the parliamentary secretary are:

1. Do the 100 additional specialists equate to 100 additional full-time equivalents over and above the staff that were already budgeted prior to the election, or does it include the 55 specialists announced by the former government?

2. Has recruitment of these additional specialists commenced?

3. When will all 100 be recruited and working?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:56): I do thank the honourable member for his question. This is a really important part of our commitment to more inclusivity in our schools and also access to support that is required. The government has committed an additional $50 million over four years to employ 100 additional mental health and learning support specialists. This will be providing that support in our schools, which is really important.

The workforce will include psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists and other learning support specialists. They will be available to work one on one with students and school staff and to support students' wellbeing and engagement in education. The roles are to be created and advertised by the end of June, which has already commenced, and over 25 FTEs have already been recruited for those roles.

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