the political background
Government’s policy is
to cap public service numbers and to give priority to front-line
services. It’s important for the education sector for you to be on
the front-line. We need to work together to get you there. So,
sign on to the
frontline.
The Ministry of Education budget took a substantial hit in 2009 and this year’s budget is expected to be worse. While the Government has said it wants to move public service resources to the frontline there is no part of the Ministry that currently fits this definition. This means that whatever cuts are made in the Ministry it will be difficult to keep the Ministry’s special education field teams out of the mix. 1,100 NZEI members work in these teams. These members are speech language therapists, special education advisers, early intervention teachers, educational psychologists, advisers on deaf children, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, kaitakawaenga, and special education support workers.
Despite a request from the Ministry to designate field staff and support workers as frontline the SSC refused to do so. The SSC avoided the question by restating the Government’s intention to see an overall shift from back office to front-line services, but gave no explanation about why special education staff couldn’t be considered to be there already.
The SSC is monitoring the cap on public service numbers across the whole public service. The SSC is due to report again to Cabinet at the end of February.
BREAKING NEWS
On 18 March the SSC minister Tony Ryall released an update on the public sector figures. For education this showed a decrease of 43 jobs. We’re not sure what these were but will find out. A sobering statistic is the 500 vacancies for support workers to be filled early this year.
read press release
details here, here and here
The Ministry of Education budget took a substantial hit in 2009 and this year’s budget is expected to be worse. While the Government has said it wants to move public service resources to the frontline there is no part of the Ministry that currently fits this definition. This means that whatever cuts are made in the Ministry it will be difficult to keep the Ministry’s special education field teams out of the mix. 1,100 NZEI members work in these teams. These members are speech language therapists, special education advisers, early intervention teachers, educational psychologists, advisers on deaf children, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, kaitakawaenga, and special education support workers.
Despite a request from the Ministry to designate field staff and support workers as frontline the SSC refused to do so. The SSC avoided the question by restating the Government’s intention to see an overall shift from back office to front-line services, but gave no explanation about why special education staff couldn’t be considered to be there already.
The SSC is monitoring the cap on public service numbers across the whole public service. The SSC is due to report again to Cabinet at the end of February.
BREAKING NEWS
On 18 March the SSC minister Tony Ryall released an update on the public sector figures. For education this showed a decrease of 43 jobs. We’re not sure what these were but will find out. A sobering statistic is the 500 vacancies for support workers to be filled early this year.
read press release
details here, here and here
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