Education cuts would move paperwork to frontline - PSA

Anne Tolley said there would be staff reductions in areas of lower priority. File photo / Supplied

The Government's plan to cut Education Ministry backroom staff would force paperwork on to frontline workers, the Public Service Association says.

The union said the ministry told its staff this morning that it would cut at least $10 million in costs in the coming financial year.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said $25 million in savings would be sought by the 2012-13 financial year, by focusing on regional and local work over the national offices.

PSA national secretary Brenda Pilott said the union had "serious concerns" that the cuts would impact education.

"Staff in frontline roles will become increasingly tied up in doing administrative work and the delivery of service at the frontline will suffer," Ms Pilott said.

"Our concern is that in cutting $25 million the Ministry will end up eroding the support network it has for its frontline services."

The union would keep a close watch on whether services suffered as a result of the cuts, she said.

New Zealand Principals Federation president Ernie Buutveld said the cuts were not a surprise from a Government looking to cut public spending, but how the money could be saved without compromising services was yet to be seen.

"It depends on where the axe falls ... $25 million is a lot of money. It will be interesting to see just which parts of the ministry can be so-called economised.

"People always thought there were too many bureaucrats - but there is valuable work done in terms of supporting schools [by backroom staff], and schools don't want to see diminished services," Mr Buutveld said.

The cuts could come on top of payroll cuts for teachers previously indicated, he said.

But Ms Tolley's support for frontline staff close to schools - and particularly her recognition of early childhood education - was welcome, he said.

Ms Tolley said staff cuts could be expected from "low priority" areas of the ministry.

"It's expected that staff will be bolstered in areas of high priority, while there will be staff reductions in areas of lower priority," she said.

Frontline regional support for schools and early childhood education would be considered for greater support, while "national office bureaucracy" would be cut and efficiency from payroll, property and information technologies services at the Ministry, Ms Tolley said.

A line-by-line review of this year's $441 million budget, and increasing cost pressures, would make the savings necessary, she said.

Secretary for Education Karen Sewell said the ministry had launched an "organisational change programme".

Ms Sewell said some activities needed to be scaled down and more effort put into others.

"The new programme will focus on three critical work areas - lifting student achievement, infrastructure and services to the sector, and improving efficiency. This may have an impact on ministry staffing levels but the level and scope of this is not yet known," she said.

"Our key priorities include aligning the way we organise ourselves as a ministry to work with providers to lift performance, confirming the services we need to provide to support the sector's performance at a high standard, and identifying the savings we need to make for our resources to be used more effectively."

- NZHERALD STAFF and NZPA