Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for EDUCATION, CHILDREN and YOUTH, Ms PALMER
Thank you, Mr President. I thought we might give the Minister for Parks, Energy and Sport a break for a moment. Minister, information provided to us through right to information states that at 31 March this year, 2105 students were waiting to see a school psychologist. The average waiting time is 273 days, which I’m sure you’ll agree, minister, if you’re in a state of mental distress is a very, very long time to get some help. The maximum wait time is 1784 days, which is almost five years. Of course, by then your school career may have finished.
The information also explains modest increases in the establishment number by two FTE to 82.25 FTE positions and funded increase as of 1 July this year. Minister, these new psychologist positions are a small step in the right direction, and I know you’ve helped to drive that, but won’t go anywhere near the need your data identifies. What is your plan for ensuring students needing and waiting to see a psychologist are able to do so in a time-frame that’s appropriate for their needs, particularly in the context of cuts to Education across the forward Estimates?
ANSWER
Thank you very much, Mr President. I thank the honourable member for Hobart for the question. Just before I answer, thank you Mr President for welcoming my daughter and her partner to this place. It’s always very exciting, especially if you’re not from Hobart, when your family comes to visit. It’s really lovely to have them here.
We know how important our allied health professionals are in our school settings. We acknowledge that over time we have seen more complexities in schools and in the lives of our young people and in their families than we ever have before. We know the very important role that they play. We have had a clear and direct emphasis on recruitment across this space. We have had a number of scholarships that have been underway – 20 new scholarships for the next generation of speech and language pathologists and psychologists in Tasmania. Indeed, since we came to government, we have had an increase of the overall number of professional support staff by 104.75 FTE.
One of the things that we have been able to do through the new Teachers Agreement is establishing a statewide school psychological assessment team. They have an additional seven FTE which are dedicated to school psychologists to look at that wait-list. We’ve set this team up and their sole purpose is to look at that wait-list –
Ms O’Connor – Through you, Mr President, to look at it and address it?
Ms PALMER – To work in that space, yes. To address it. To back in the psychologists and the other allied health professionals that we already had in our schools, but this is a team that is specifically focused on those wait times.
I think it’s also really important to say that our schools are actually really beautiful, nurturing environments. We have a number of different ways that we are able to triage a young person’s needs, and we work really hard in that space. It is done on a triage basis. We are doing everything that we can, acknowledging that this is a nationwide issue, and we are recruiting certainly across Australia and indeed internationally as well. You’ll see from our commitment in the Budget and in the forward Estimates that we are absolutely committed to ensuring that we have more allied health professionals in this space, but very much in regard to your question, a real laser focus on those waiting lists.
