Chris HIPKINS

Education Spokesperson
 
03 March  2013                                          

MEDIA STATEMENT

Cut schools some slack in face of Novopay

Hundreds if not thousands of schools up and down the country will have fallen foul of a Ministry of Education requirement for them to submit school charters by last Friday through no fault of their own, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.
 
“As schools struggle to deal with the National Government’s Novopay debacle, they just haven’t been able to complete their charters on time. Pleas for the Minister to extend the deadline have fallen on deaf ears. The Government has shown a total lack of compassion for those dealing with Novopay by refusing to even contemplate easing pressure on them in other areas.
 
“In most schools, the same staff who deal with the payroll will also be handing compliance issues like charters. Given the choice between making sure people get paid or meeting Ministry compliance requirements, many schools have rightly focused on getting people paid.
 
“Principals and schools tell me they’ve written to Ministers pleading for lenience on charters, but they’ve been completely ignored. Hekia Parata’s absolute arrogance and unwillingness to show lenience on already over-stressed school staff once again shows how out of touch and out of her depth she is as Minister of Education.
 
“The Novopay debacle has been going on for over six months now. Steven Joyce’s tenure as “Mr Fix-it” has changed nothing for those working on the ground. They still can’t get through to the call centre, they still can’t get accurate information on what people are or aren’t being paid, and schools are still having to pay staff directly.
 
“A survey by the Principals Federation last week revealed that 25,000 staff were incorrectly paid in the last pay round, over 96% of schools have unresolved problems from previous pay rounds, and over half of all schools paid teachers directly from their operations grants last pay round.
 
“The Novo-shambles rolls on yet still the Government refuses to do anything to relieve the massive pressure school administrators are under. Vague promises of a solution somewhere in the future just don’t cut it. Schools desperately need help and support now. Parata and Joyce should get off their backsides and start providing it,” Chris Hipkins says.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>