❓ Mr. Morton questions the Minister for Health on the progress of the government's commitment to employ 155 additional school health nurses. The Minister confirms they are on track, having allocated 145.5 FTE school nurses and 10 FTE speech pathologists, with a total of 314.4 FTEs.
AnsweredQoN 845Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SCHOOL
HEALTH NURSES
845. MR N.W. MORTON to the
Minister for Health:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge the student leaders,
parent representatives and staff from Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School in
my electorate, who are present in the public gallery.
I refer to the government's commitment to employ an
additional 155 school health nurses. Is the government on track to meet that
commitment in its current term of office?
HEALTH NURSES
845. MR N.W. MORTON to the
Minister for Health:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge the student leaders,
parent representatives and staff from Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School in
my electorate, who are present in the public gallery.
I refer to the government's commitment to employ an
additional 155 school health nurses. Is the government on track to meet that
commitment in its current term of office?
AnswerView source ↗
Before answering, on behalf of the member for Ocean Reef, I
would like to recognise in the public gallery the students from Ocean Reef
Primary School—welcome, guys.
Some members may recall the origin of this commitment that
was made by the government at the last election. When we were in opposition, I
was a member of the Education and Health Standing Committee, which carried out
an inquiry into the previous government's provision of services for
children throughout the state, particularly the issue of school health nurses,
paediatricians and speech therapists across the system. We found enormous
deficiencies. At the 2008 election, we made a commitment to significantly
upgrade the number of positions in all three of those areas. Subsequently, over
the following years, we made a commitment of $150 million in total, allocating
$40 million to $50 million on each of the three packages. The last package was
for school health nurses, and we committed in this term of government to
provide 155 school health nurses.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I am sorry if I am interrupting the member.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen, I call you to order for the second time.
Yesterday afternoon I had to get everybody to keep quiet because you could not
concentrate. The minister is talking now.
Dr K.D. HAMES : We
committed to 155.5 full-time equivalents. Following that, we had discussions
with speech therapists, who were very strongly of the view that we needed to
divert some of those FTEs into speech therapists to have them spread throughout
the schools to deal very early with children with speech disabilities. We
agreed to do that and allocated 145.5 FTE school nurses and 10 FTE speech
pathologists. I want to inform the house that we are well on track to achieve
that target. Next year is the final year, but we are well down the path of recruiting
all those staff. By the time we finish, there will be a total of 314.4 FTEs,
which is a 98 per cent increase in the numbers of those staff. Those staff are
spread throughout Western Australia, with a significant number in country areas—110
FTEs in the metropolitan area and 44.9 in regional Western Australia. All of
those are well on track, and we are significantly addressing the shortfalls we
saw under the previous government.
would like to recognise in the public gallery the students from Ocean Reef
Primary School—welcome, guys.
Some members may recall the origin of this commitment that
was made by the government at the last election. When we were in opposition, I
was a member of the Education and Health Standing Committee, which carried out
an inquiry into the previous government's provision of services for
children throughout the state, particularly the issue of school health nurses,
paediatricians and speech therapists across the system. We found enormous
deficiencies. At the 2008 election, we made a commitment to significantly
upgrade the number of positions in all three of those areas. Subsequently, over
the following years, we made a commitment of $150 million in total, allocating
$40 million to $50 million on each of the three packages. The last package was
for school health nurses, and we committed in this term of government to
provide 155 school health nurses.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
Dr
K.D. HAMES : I am sorry if I am interrupting the member.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen, I call you to order for the second time.
Yesterday afternoon I had to get everybody to keep quiet because you could not
concentrate. The minister is talking now.
Dr K.D. HAMES : We
committed to 155.5 full-time equivalents. Following that, we had discussions
with speech therapists, who were very strongly of the view that we needed to
divert some of those FTEs into speech therapists to have them spread throughout
the schools to deal very early with children with speech disabilities. We
agreed to do that and allocated 145.5 FTE school nurses and 10 FTE speech
pathologists. I want to inform the house that we are well on track to achieve
that target. Next year is the final year, but we are well down the path of recruiting
all those staff. By the time we finish, there will be a total of 314.4 FTEs,
which is a 98 per cent increase in the numbers of those staff. Those staff are
spread throughout Western Australia, with a significant number in country areas—110
FTEs in the metropolitan area and 44.9 in regional Western Australia. All of
those are well on track, and we are significantly addressing the shortfalls we
saw under the previous government.
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