Dear Ministry of Education,

Please can you please provide all written policy documents, guidelines, application forms and other documentation issued by or used by the Ministry relating to the funding and administration of the Out of Hours Music and Arts (OOHMA) programme, including any information held by the Ministry setting out:
1. the processes by which schools can apply for and be allocated OOHMA funding
2. key timelines, dates, decision points, processes and decision-makers in the annual OOHMA application and approvals process
3. how OOHMA funding/hours requests are considered and determined to ensure hours are allocated fairly and reasonably between host schools
4. the earliest and latest date in the year that a school can apply for OOHMA funding/hours
5. the information, documentation and supporting materials that schools need to supply when they request OOHMA funding/hours
6. how housekeeping/admin costs for the host school are determined, how often they are reviewed and what is the process for periodically adjusting them to ensure that increased costs for heating, utilities, inflation etc. are adequately covered by the grant amount/rate
7. a description of the key paid staff roles for OOHMA school programmes (and how hours of funding for the supervisors, tutors and other staff are requested, determined and allocated)
8. how the rates for each paid staff role for OOHMA school programmes are determined and updated (and whether there is a rates review process to ensure that staff are paid fairly and inflation/cost of living are covered through rates adjustments)
9. whether the rates for each paid staff role for the OOHMA school programmes are at least as favourable when compared to equivalent rates in the current ACE Collective Agreement
9. for each OOHMA school, whether the host school currently owns any musical instruments (and other assets and equipment) that have been purchased from funding provide by parents, donations or other non-Ministry sources and whether there has been a separate charitable trust or other legal entity set up for the OOHMA programme at that school to hold such assets for the benefit of the OOHMA students and community.
10. the maximum number of OOHMA hours available for allocation in each year since 2000, whether this number has been increased to accommodate growth in the population and the number of primary and intermediate school students over the last 20 years
10. how often the standard documentation and guidelines for OOHMA are updated (and the date on which they were last updated)
11. how many FTE staff at the Ministry are assigned to administer the OOHMA programme
12. where on the Ministry's website can any of the above information be readily found by the general public or any school

In addition to the above, for each year since 2009, please confirm all hourly rates for the host school Housekeeping Grant and for each paid staff role (and pay level).

In addition to the above, for each year since 2009, please confirm the total number of OOHMA hours available for each region, the average OOHMA hours available to host schools in that region.

In addition to the above, for each year since 2009, please provide the following information by region and host school:
A. Number of enrolled OOHMA students
B. Number of OOHMA tutors, the number of hours requested and the number of hours allocated/approved (by role type/pay level)
C. Number of other paid OOHMA staff roles, the number of hours requested and the number of hours allocated (by role type/pay level)
D. The number of hours and total amount of any Housekeeping Grant

In addition to the above, for each year since 2015, please provide copies of all application forms for classes submitted by OOHMA host schools in the Auckland area.

In addition to the above, please provide the following information for 2015 onwards for OOHMA programmes for Papakura High School/Papakura Intermediate School (treating that as a single OOHMA programme with a change in host school), Glenfield Intermediate, Pakuranga Intermediate, Tamaki School, MindAlive, Pukekohe Intermediate and any other host school where funding has either increased by more than 10% (annually or in aggregate year since 2009) and any other host school where the school's number of funded hours is greater than the average number of hours available to schools in that region:
I. any information held by the the Ministry regarding requests for additional OOHMA funding hours and reasons given by the host school for such additional requests (if applicable)
II. confirmation of whether the Ministry has a policy or practice of allocating and maintaining more OOHMA funding hours for this school than the average number of hours available to schools in that region (if applicable)
III. any years during which that school has been allocated additional OOHMA funding hours, or allocated funding hours greater than the average number of hours available to schools in that region, when another OOHMA host school with less hours has requested additional funding hours but has been declined

In addition to the above, I note the following:
• The Ministry appears to be allowing some OOHMA host schools to be allocated and maintain significantly greater OOHMA funding hours than the average number of hours available in the region at the same time as other OOHMA host schools (with significantly less funding) are being declined additional OOHMA funding hours.
• The Ministry appears to be "pre-allocating" or "holding" hours for existing OOHMA host schools from year-to-year (unless the host school releases or does not require the hours) rather than conducting a genuine application and allocation process each year.

Please confirm whether the Ministry has reviewed the practices set out in the preceding paragraph and considered whether or not those practices are:
- a reasonable and appropriate way to allocate hours that is fair to host schools participating in the OOHMA application process
- consistent with the Ministry's guidelines for applications/approval requiring the split of hours between host schools to be "appropriate"
- consistent with the Ministry's guidelines for applications/approval which state that funding approval is "current for one year only"

Yours faithfully,

A Birch

Dear Ministry of Education,

Please accept my apologies - there are numbering issues in the original request. Please treat the last 5 numbered paragraphs in the first section as being numbered 10-14.

There are a number of other minor typos and errors in my request, but please let me know if they require clarification or cause any issues with responding to this request.

Yours faithfully,

A Birch