Items discussed at the March 2018 SPAC meeting

Issues raised by SPAC on behalf of senior leaders at its last meeting:

Advice updates and newsletters

Guidelines and advice for senior leaders will be updated and added to the SPAC section of the PPTA website. This will include advice for senior leaders on school reorganisation, day relief and following correct process when health and safety concerns are notified.

Links to the new material will also be highlighted in the SPAC newsletter, which members can sign up to receive directly (along with newsletters for other interest groups) on the members only side of ppta.org.nz.

To access the members' only side of the PPTA website your username is your MoE number with no zeros in front or the email address you have provided us. Your password is also your MoE number (no zeroes in front). This can be changed when you log in.

Senior Positions Advisory Committee section on PPTA website (ppta.org.nz)

PPTA newsletters signup form (log in required)

Timetablers’ workloads

It was noted that the timetabler may be the only position required to be in school during the term break. SPAC endorses the practice of a timetabling team to share out the workload and to provide more security for the school.

It was suggested that a list of tips for timetablers could be included in the PPTA’s guide to timetabling and on SPAC website.

Reorganisations and senior leadership

The most common type of reorganisation is of senior leadership.

Advice will be going onto the SPAC website shortly for senior leaders in schools where
reorganisation is being considered.

Communities of Learning

Issues remain about backfilling of roles for Communities of Learning (CoL) positions. CoL funding is base line and will continue. The new government does not intend to replace or remove the COL model but will be more relaxed about aspects of it.

The achievement challenges will not need to include national standards or NCEA results and there is already more flexibility around the challenges being approved. The approval of the challenges will not be done in the Minister of Education's office as they were previously. There will be greater flexibility around the leadership options and less pressure on schools to join up and make teacher role appointments.

Acting up allowance

Some Senior Leadership Team (SLT) members are reporting difficulty in getting Payroll to pay the acting up allowance. The excuse given for refusing it is that the principal is still on pay (but may, for example, be away overseas recruiting foreign fee payers).

Advice is to contact the field officer as this is just a direct breach of entitlement by payroll. PPTA will also raise the issue centrally with the MoE.

Professional development on social media risks

Lawyer Lucy Jenkins from Simpson and Greer is recommended for PLD for staff on social media risks. Her contact email is Lucy.Jenkins@simpsongrierson.com

Teacher supply

Recruitment and retention issues and the need to improve pay and conditions were stressed. Signs are that the supply pressures in secondary are increasing, noting there are normally an additional 3-400 more teachers required post confirmation of the 1st March returns.

In January, before schools opened, 79 Auckland secondary schools were reporting to the ministry an average of about one unfilled vacancy each. This compared to about 16 primary vacancies in the Auckland region. The MoE has convened a group to establish a ‘dashboard’ of common supply data for the sector. Currently they are not including qualitative information, which makes the dashboard considerably less useful than it might otherwise be.

Health and safety at work update- requirement to address identified issue

A presentation has been developed to give more advice on responding to an identified health and safety notification within a reasonable timeframe.

The need was identified because of a situation involving PPTA and STA, in which the school leadership principal failed to do this.  

The principal (which may be a SLT member acting as principal) must respond to a health and safety notification and failure to do so can result in significant fines (up to $250,000). 

See Responding to a health and safety notification for more details and access to the presentation 

Proposed employment legislation changes

Mostly these restore the position which existed prior to changes under the three previous National-led governments.

• Removing the requirement for a union representative (e.g. the PPTA field officer or president) from gaining consent before entering the workplace.

• 90 day trials – these are now limited to organisations with fewer than 20 employees. Trial periods are otherwise again illegal. This is primarily an likely to be issue in the employment of support staff.

• Industrial penalties – The specific pay deduction penalties for partial strikes have been removed.

• Discrimination on the basis of direct or indirect involvement in union activity in the previous 18 months can constitute discrimination by the employer.

• Requirement to conclude bargaining – reinstating the duty of good faith to conclude a collective agreement, and repealing the provision to enable the Employment Relations Authority to determine that bargaining has concluded without agreement.

• Unjustified dismissal – reinstatement would be restored as the primary remedy for an unjustified dismissal.

• Time for union delegates to represent members – an employee who is an appointed union delegate (e.g. PPTA branch chairperson) would be entitled to reasonable paid time during normal working hours to undertake representation of other employees. This would be similar to the wording for the elected Health and Safety representative, which indicates those with the entitlement would be released during the school day when the need arises to represent other employees who are union members in employment matters (for example, attending a meeting with a member who is instructed to see the principal on a potential discipline issue or making a formal representation on an important branch matter to the principal during the school day.)

PPTA will provide further advice as the Bill progresses into law.

• Rest and meal breaks – reinstating the right to prescribed and paid meal breaks. This returns us to the entitlements that existed before:

o In an 8 hour day, a ten minute rest break, a 30 minute meal break and a second ten minute rest break all free from duty and placed by agreement or if no agreement can be reached evenly around midday.

o PPTA has several models of how this has been achieved in schools before.

The new aspect is that if an employer did not provide the rest/meal break they would have to provide compensation which is equivalent, either in time or in monetary value to the time, or a combination.

The Bill has had its first reading and is now before the Select Committee.

NCEA review

The Minister of Education has set up an Minister’s Advisory Group (MAG) to advise on the broad picture.

There is also a stakeholders’ Reference Group established by and reporting to the Ministry (RG). Between the two groups are some members of the RG referred to as leads. They act as a conduit between the two groups. PPTA is represented.

There will also be a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) to provide a recent ‘users’ opinion. This is made up of young people who have all indicated an intention to go to university.
The review terms of reference include considering the workload impacts on students and on teachers of the qualification.

The timetable is:

• From February 2018: Ministry and the Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG), in consultation with stakeholders, identify relevant topics for public consultation.
• Late April, MAG, supported by Ministry of Education, with contribution from the YAG and RG, releases a Discussion Document.
• From late April to July, Ministry will hold public consultation on NCEA through workshops and surveys etc. and with focus groups of young people, families and whānau.
• In September, Ministry will produce a Consultation Report which summarises what has been heard about NCEA.

• From August to November the MAG and the Ministry, in consultation with the YAG and RG, draft a Recommendations Report for the Minister of Education. This goes to cabinet in November.
• An Implementation Report will be released in April 2019 (estimated) and will lay out the steps to implement recommendations. The type of changes made will determine what the implementation process looks like and how long it will take.

PPTA in at the ground floor of major NCEA review (PPTA News)

NCEA review terms of reference (Ministry of Education PDF)

NCEA workload

The ministry has moved into the review any work on the workload aspects of NCEA that arose from the Workload Working Party in 2016.

There is a joint organisation poster which PPTA has sent to schools. The intention is that the common messages from the sector organisations will encourage schools to seriously review their approach to NCEA and look for ways within their own control that the associated workload can be reduced.

Education Council changes

The name is to be Teaching Council of New Zealand. The functions of the council are to be pared back to certification and ‘quality assurance’ through its competence and discipline arm and the responsibility for PLD has been taken back from it. The changes are seen as a win, with the inclusion again of elected teacher and principal representatives in a majority on the Teaching Council. 

The council has scrapped its proposed fees increase after getting 10,000 responses to its consultation on the increases

Resourcing review

The resourcing review is on hold at the moment. It may not go ahead. This is seen as unfortunate in that a review of resourcing generally was needed and a lot of work has already been put into the process.

The decile system will not be replaced in the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen what happens to the current targeted funding for disadvantage. It is probably most likely to be rolled back into the decile funding.

Charter schools

The legislation allowing them to be established is gone and those that remain will be integrated in to the state system as special character schools under the same conditions that apply to state and integrated schools.

30 year plan for education

A part of the coalition deal with NZ1st. The outcome could be the first major change in direction since Tomorrow’s Schools. The review will look at both governance structures (boards) and the support framework around schools (the central agencies etc).

PPTA will be discussing with members what an alternative model could look like. In the meantime the government has set up the Education Conversation - Kōrero Mātauranga survey, which we encourage members to take part in. 

Education Conversation - Kōrero Mātauranga survey

Terms of reference for the review of Tomorrow's Schools (Ministry of Education PDF)

Industrial update

STCA round and claims development were discussed. SPAC saw the power point used at Issues and Organising and discussed the strategic direction and thinking behind the claim. There was general support for the components and the strategy.

Members will be asked in May-June for feedback on the proposal and for any claim items they feel need to be included with the core elements around pay, units, workload and a high cost accommodation area allowance. SPAC will prepare and HX for PPTA Executive on senior leadership members’ priorities for additional claim items. These are likely to focus on adjustments to SMAs and the acting up allowance.

Contact us

If you have issues you want raised at the next Senior Positions Advisory Committee meeting please contact your SPAC representative.

Contact your lcoal SPAC representative
or contact the SPAC coordinator