Support staff spread thin

Learning support workers from Southland are fighting for better pay and lighter workloads.

About 20 workers in Southland took strike action on Tuesday putting more pressure on the Ministry of Education following the teacher and principal strike earlier in the month.

New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Southland field officer Ainslie Forbes said there was not enough specialists for children who needed extra support in the region.

Roles of support workers include educational and behavioural psychologists, early intervention teachers, Kaitakawaenga, special education advisers, speech language therapists, physiotherapists, advisers on deaf children and occupational therapists.

The workers help children with a range of needs, including communication, behaviour and physical needs.

There were a lot of skilled people in the fields, but because of wages, were choosing other private sectors rather than public, Ainslie said.

Like teachers, it was important to recruit and retain staff in those fields, she said.

‘‘They get paid more in other sectors. There are people out there with the skills but the wages aren’t bringing them into the sector.

They also wanted their workload looked at because the sector was already ‘‘straining to meet needs’’.

The Government had committed extra funding through Budget 2018 so that more children could access additional learning support, including some money that targets recruitment, but they were in a position of trying to provide a ‘‘catch up’’ given the growing numbers of children who needed to access support, Ainslie said.

There were hundreds of children in Southland who received support from these workers, she said.

Donovan Primary School principal and NZEI chairman of the principals council Peter Hopwood said the situation was the worst he had seen.

Strikers wanted to do something to give back to the community so the Southland workers ran a charity sausage sizzle with proceeds going to Riding for the Disabled, Ainslie said.