Page 2325 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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As I mentioned, several successive internal audits have shown significant discrepancies between leave taken and leave processed for teachers. So far from the “flawed record keeping” referred to in Mr Doszpot’s motion, sound record keeping systems have allowed this discrepancy to be identified and corrected. As a result of the audit, the directorate’s independently chaired audit committee instructed the human resources branch to develop a system-wide individual accountability mechanism for teacher and school assistant absences. It is worth noting that such mechanisms exist in all other ACT public service directorates.
In a further error in Mr Doszpot’s motion, he refers to “new arrangements for recording teacher attendance within the public school system”. The new absence record does not record teacher attendance. Teacher attendance is recorded at the school level and always has been.
The absence record was developed following an audit of the 2007-08 calendar years—an audit of those years, Mr Speaker. The audit found that approximately one-third of the directorate’s school teaching workforce, or around 1,600 teachers, had a discrepancy between leave taken and leave processed. This resulted in an approximate leave liability cost to the department of $2.4 million. The audit confirmed that there had been little change from the previous audit conducted on leave taken and leave processed in the 2005-06 financial year.
As a result of that 2005-06 audit, the Mandatory procedures for managing employee absence and the Best practice guidelines for managing employee absence in schools were published in 2006. Whilst these publications assisted schools to deal with the non-submission of leave forms, they did not provide a system-wide mechanism of individual accountability. The new absence record fills this accountability gap.
Let me make this very clear: the absence record has been developed in accordance with the enterprise agreement provisions and in consultation with the AEU. It has been piloted across 10 schools over two terms prior to its introduction. Significant changes were made to the form as a result of the initial pilot in term 4 of 2010 and very little comment was received from the second pilot in term 1 of 2011.
The impact on individual workload in completing the absence record is insignificant. In a fortnight where no leave has been taken, it should take less than 10 seconds for a staff member to tick and sign the record and a similar time for a supervisor to do the same. Even when significant and complex leave has been taken, the time for the teacher and supervisor to complete the absence record would be no more than a couple of minutes. The form that teachers fill in is simple. If you have not taken any leave, tick the box. If you have taken leave, fill in the time and the dates. This is a quick process that will ensure accuracy and, importantly, save ACT taxpayers millions of dollars, and ensure the smoother running of schools.
Mr Doszpot states that the absence record “is poor business practice and reflects badly on the public education system and places a burden on the majority for the failure of a few to fill in paperwork”. I submit that the introduction of an absence record is in fact sound business practice. I submit that it supports the ACT public education system
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