09.Ohumahi TD Redacted.pdf

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Briefing for incoming Hautū,
Te Puna Ohumahi Māt
auranga |
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Education Workforce
September 2021

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Appendices
Appendix 1: 9(2)(f)(iv)
Appendix 2: Bargaining and Pay Equity Governance Group Terms of Reference
Appendix 3: Employment Relations and Pay Equity Delegations
Appendix 4: 9(2)(g)(i)
Appendix 5: Schematic of Education Workforce working relationships with other Ministry
groups
Appendix 6: Education Workforce organisation chart
Appendix 7: Education Workforce Leadership Team Terms of Reference July 2021
Appendix 8: The Education Accord
Appendix 9: 9(2)(f)(iv)
Appendix 10: 9(2)(f)(iv)
Appendix 11: 9(2)(g)(i)
Appendix 12: 9(2)(j)
Appendix 13: 9(2)(j)
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Executive Summary

Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga is a new group bringing together two existing teams under one
Deputy Secretary
1.  Education Workforce from Early Learning and Student Achievement (ELSA), and
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2.  Education Payroll from Education Infrastructure Service (EIS).

The creation of Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga recognises the critical role that the education sector
workforce has in creating an inclusive environment for diverse ākonga and high-quality, culturally
relevant pedagogy. It will ensure the system has the right people in the right place at the right time

for early learning, kōhanga reo, schools and kura. It will have links to tertiary education organisations
(in particular wānanga), iwi and Māori, peak bodies and others, in the co-design of solutions to
workforce challenges, such as provision of teachers with te reo and mātauranga Māori knowledge
and Pacific languages. It also recognises that the workforce strategy and the end result of bargaining
are key drivers for schools payroll delivery.

Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga will advance the education workforce strategy, including a focus on
specialist services, employment relations, pay equity, education payroll, teacher supply and
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scholarship functions.

This will require Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga to work closely with Te Tuarongo, the Māori medium
and wider sector, and communities. Education Workforce will need to be connected to and work
with all parts of our organisation, as we l as with education unions. This will help us deliver on the
education sector workforce strategy, in particular as part of bargaining, and payroll (ie, the key

relationship with Education Payroll Limited Rārangi Utu ā-Mātauranga (EPL, the provider of the
schools payroll service).

Key themes for the next 6 months include:
•  Bargaining collective contracts
•  Investigating and bargaining pay equity claims
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  Completing the Education Workforce Strategy and developing the specialist workforce
component of our work
•  9(2)(f)(iv)

•  9(2)(f)(iv)

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•  Working with EPL to ensure sustainable schools payroll delivery, including:
o  smooth completion of the Oracle database upgrade
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o  strong change management as schools move from Novopay Online to EdPay, the
new digital user interface
o  9(2)(f)(iv)

o  smooth and timely implementation of employment agreement changes and pay
equity agreements
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•  9(2)(j)

Longer term strategic priorities

The Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) sets out the Government’s
education priorities. Objective two requires us to reduce barriers to education for all, including for
Māori and Pacific learners, disabled learners and those with learning support needs. Objective three
of the NELP requires the government to meaningfully incorporate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori
into the everyday life of the place of learning, develop staff to strengthen teaching, leadership and
learner support capability across the education workforce. The Teaching Council also requires that
teachers have continued to develop and practice te reo Māori in order to renew their practicing
certificate.
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In order to deliver on the NELP objectives, Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga will need to recruit and
develop more Māori and Pacific teachers, and to ensure that there are more people in the education
workforce able to teach STEM (science, technology engineering and maths) subjects, Te reo Māori
and tikanga Māori, ensure there are sufficient teachers who can teach in Māori medium pathways.
There is already a high demand for people with these skills.

The Ministry is already working on initiatives to grow and strengthen an education workforce that

can deliver the NELP objectives. These initiatives include Te Ahu o te Reo Māori initiative, targeted
scholarships to attrac  teachers to address areas with teacher supply needs, remove barriers to
initial teacher education, and Teach NZ campaigns targeting Māori and Pacific audiences and people
with a STEM background.
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However, delivering on the Government’s objectives is likely to require new initiatives and long-term
planning including more research into how we can attract candidates with the skills in priority areas,
filling in the data gaps in our current understanding of the teacher labour market, building a stronger
link between the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) pipeline and demand needs, and co-designing
teacher supply initiatives with Iwi. The Education Workforce team will also need to engage in the
Budget process to ensure there is sufficient funding to expand on existing initiatives and develop
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The Education Workforce team

This section describes the structure, functions, initiatives and other key information relating to the
Education Workforce team coming from Early Learning and Student Achievement.

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Team purpose
The Education Workforce team contributes to Aotearoa New Zealand having a strong, culturally
competent education workforce that is capable, valued, connected and supported in delivering a

world-leading, learner-focussed education system.

The team is highly connected and dependent on other Ministry functions
The work of the team is both highly connected across the Ministry and dependent on the products
and services of other Ministry groups. Attached for your information as Appendix 5 is a schematic
that outlines these dependencies.

The change document set aspirations for a changed workforce function and indicates that Te Puna
Ohumahi Mātauranga may need to take on a number of functions that do not currently sit with
Education Workforce or Payroll. For example, it is being asked to lead development of a long-term
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plan for the specialist workforce. Where this work sits in Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga will need to
be considered, as Education Workforce is not resourced or funded for this work at present.

Work programme focus
The team’s work programme focus is to ensure the right people with the right skills are attracted to

join and stay in the education workforce. It designs and delivers a suite of national level measures
needed to address both the immediate and future projected gaps between the demand and supply
of the education workforce. The team works closely with other Ministry teams to understand what

can be done meaningfully at regional, local and sector levels when there is a teacher supply
challenge.

The Education Workforce team has five interconnected units providing end to end workforce
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strategy, operational policy, bargaining, system level programme implementation, collective
agreement and pay equity implementation and human resources service support to schools.  The co-
location of these interconnected functions ensures that the Education Workforce function is well
placed to plan, think and act strategically.

All our work is underpinned by fostering quality employment relations practices including collective
bargaining, an equitable pay system and delivering an innovative mix of awards, grants, and
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scholarships to continuously lift the capability of the education workforce.

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Team units

Education Workforce functions include:
•  An operational policy and design function consisting of policy specialists and system
programme design expertise.  This team designs and implements a number of bargaining
adjacent workforce initiatives focused on workforce supply, new ways of working, workload
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and wellbeing.  This function also ensures a strategic policy and learner centred approach to
bargaining.

•  Employment Relations advocates and technical specialists who negotiate employment
agreements and provide advice and supporting information for schools, kura and
kindergartens regarding how various conditions of employment should be applied.
•  A Pay Equity function consisting of specialist pay equity personnel who advise on the
relevant pay equity bargaining process, investigate claims, negotiate settlement of claims,
support schools in implementing negotiated settlements, and monitor the outcomes of
settled claims.
•  There are also dedicated engagement and HR practitioners who work across the Ministry of
Education functions to ensure schools have wrap around support for frontline employment
relations (ER) and pay equity (PE) implementation

9(2)(f)(iv)
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The plan was baselined in
June 2021 and is reviewed quarterly by the Education Workforce Leadership Team. Within this, each
individual team maintains their own plan, and these are monitored and reviewed on a regular basis.
The work programme does change in response to Ministry priorities.

Key initiatives include:

•  Strategic Design: The Education Workforce Strategy; Principals’ Eligibility Criteria

•  Teacher Supply  Border Exceptions; Teacher Supply and Demand Tool; Prime Minister’s
Awards; Teacher Aide Career Pathways
•  Claims and Implementation: Employment Based Initial Teacher Education; Business Process
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Improvement; Outstanding Debt project

•  Employment Relations: Negotiation of, or preparation for negotiating 15 employment
contracts during 2021 – 22; Employment advice to schools particularly on COVID-19
•  Pay Equity: Investigating 14 Pay Equity Claims. Implementation of the Teacher Aide Pay
Equity Claim
•  Business Support: Transition to Te Puna Ohumahi Mātauranga; Ministerials (including
parliamentary questions, Official Information Act requests, etc); business improvement;
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budgeting and recruitment support.

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Amanda Broatch
Chief Advisor

Marketing and
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Communications

Joss Debreceny
Chief Advisor
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Education Workforce Teams

Employment Relations and Pay Equity
The Education Workforce Group is responsible for the negotiation of 15 collective employment
contracts with the education sector, providing some ER advice to the sector, and investigating,
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negotiating and implementing (or supporting implementation of) many of the education sector Pay
Equity Claims.

Our ER unit has three parts:

•  Employment Relations. Manager Tim Tucker. Responsible for negotiation of collective and
pay equity agreements, and ER advice to the sector.
•  Pay Equity. Manager Sarah Martin. Responsible for investigating the pay equity claims
•  Claims Implementation. Manager Georgina (Georgy) Holloway. Responsible for
implementing (or supporting implementation of) pay equity agreements.

The Ministry negotiates 15 collective agreements covering the Education Service for the Secretary
for Education under delegation from the Public Service Commissioner. We have a nine-year
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bargaining strategy for all the collective agreements that cover staff working in State and State-
Integrated schools and kura. Bargaining is guided by this overall strategy.
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Pay Equity

Pay equity acknowledges the value of the skills, responsibilities and demands of workers in female-
dominated occupations that have suffered from gender-based discrimination because of perceptions

and prejudices about the value of “women’s work”.

The Government is committed to removing and preventing gender-based discrimination in the
remuneration and employment terms and conditions for work done within female-dominated jobs.

There are several pay equity claims either recently raised, underway, or settled in the education
sector (note that some are managed by the Ministry’s People Capability Team, which our Pay Equity
team works closely with). These are:
WORKFORCE
RAISED BY
STATUS
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Administration and Clerical Workers
PSA
Raised October 2019
Administration support staff in schools
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Currently investigating
Allied, scientific and technical
APEX (Association of
Raised November 2020
employees
Professional and
  Executive Employees)
Area school, intermediate and
PPTA
Raised December 2020
secondary teachers and principals

Early Intervention Teachers
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020
Education advisors
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020
Kaiārahi i te reo
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Currently investigating
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Ministry employees in administration
PSA
Currently investigating. Led by
and clerical roles
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Psychologists
NZEI Te Riu Roa

School librarians and library assistants
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Arguability agreed
School science technicians
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Arguability agreed
Service managers
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020
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Teacher aides
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Settled in 2020
Teachers
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020
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WORKFORCE
RAISED BY
STATUS
Therapists
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020

There are also several pay equity claims in the education sector where the Ministry of Education is
not named as an employer.
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WORKFORCE
RAISED BY
STATUS
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Kindergarten administrators
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020

Kindergarten cooks
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020
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Kindergarten teacher aides
NZEI Te Riu Roa
Raised November 2020

Early learning teachers
Individual employees in
Raised November 2020
the Early learning sector

Strategic Design
Strategic Design aims to smooth the transition of workforce policy decisions to execution. It does
this by providing strategic support for significant work programmes (such as the Bargaining
Strategy), policy frameworks and models (such as the Education Workforce System Dynamic Model)
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and we lead the development of the Education Workforce Strategy.  Strategic Design ensures
alignment between the strategies and priorities of the Education Workforce group and other wider
Ministry strategies and programmes.

Developing the Education Workforce Strategy was one of the agreed outcomes of the Education
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Accord between the Ministry, the NZEI and PPTA (See Appendix 8 for detail of the Accord).
The scope encompasses early learning, primary, and secondary education learning support, and
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administrative and executive functions for both Māori and English education. An Education

Workforce Strategy Governance Group (EWSG) of 25 sector members representing the diversity of
the education sectors was formed to co-design and develop the strategy.

Extensive work has taken place since the Accord signing, and we are conducting further engagement
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with the sector through our Regional Directors at present.

The vision for the Education Workforce Strategy is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have a capable,
valued and connected and supported education workforce, that drives a world leading, learner
focused education system.

Draft iterations of the Strategy have been presented to the Minister of Education for feedback. The
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current draft is attached as 9(2)(f)(iv)


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Teacher Supply
Teacher Supply leads the Ministry of Education Teacher Supply function, including developing a
multi-year Teacher Supply strategy and associated initiatives. The team designs and delivers a suite
of national level measures needed to address both the immediate, medium- and long-term gaps
between the demand and supply of teachers. The team is also responsible for the Prime Minister’s
Awards Programme.
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We identify and manage the teacher supply risks that arise as a result of changes to policy direction   1982
and the economy including events such as COVID-19. We work closely with all teams within
Education Workforce, as well as across the Ministry e.g. Sector Enablement and Support functions,
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now restructured within Te Mahau, to address teacher supply challenges at the local level.

A key product is the Ministry’s Teacher Demand and Supply Planning Tool -
www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling2/workforce/a-summary-of-the-teacher-
demand-and-supply-planning-tool.

The Tool is designed to estimate the number of teachers required by schools in the future and
compare this with an estimate of how many teachers are expected to be employed by schools in the
future. It informs us how well the future need for teachers will be met, in terms of having either too
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few or too many teachers, if there are no changes to our current policies and school hiring practices.

Current teacher supply situation
We are currently working with Education Data and Knowledge on development of the annual
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teacher supply and demand tool. Based on preliminary analysis we believe that nationally there are

enough primary school teachers to meet demand, and the shortage of secondary school teachers is
significantly lower than in 2020.
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The teacher labour market has been fundamentally disrupted by COVID-19. Two important trends
are worth noting:

•  Historically, schools recruited 850 teachers internationally every year (c20% of all new
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teachers) with financial support from various Ministry initiatives. Since the pandemic,
overseas recruitment has reduced to almost zero.
•  Teachers have been less likely to leave the profession during the pandemic - retention has
increased substantially compared with pre-pandemic levels. The net impact of this increase
in retention appears to be is greater than the reduced supply of international teacher,
although we believe this is a temporary trend which is likely to reverse as travel becomes
easier.  This will be confirmed as part of the annual forecasting process.
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Our data on early learning teacher supply is limited as this workforce is almost entirely employed by
the private sector. Based on conversations with the sector, we believe that the supply of teachers in
the early learning sector is currently very challenging.

We are adjusting existing initiatives as well as proposing some new initiatives to respond to this.
These will be included in our planned Teacher Supply Education Report (due in October). Note that
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our ability to put in place immediate ‘quick fixes’ is relatively limited.

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There are two key challenges in the teacher supply space:
•  The immediate demand and supply of teachers. The greatest impact on this is external
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factors such as closure of NZ borders and the wider economy, rather than factors we have

control over. Teaching is viewed as a stable profession. Enrolments in initial teacher
education (ITE) increase through a recession and attrition rates also reduce. We have
initiatives that can be dialed up or down to support the growth (or reduction) of the
numbers of qualified teachers.
•  The longer-term challenge that relates to specific teacher pools, for example Māori language
and Māori Medium roles, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) roles, early
learning, decile 1-3 schools and hard to staff schools. We are also aware of increased
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demand for Pacific language and Pacific immersion teachers.

Current Teacher Supply initiatives to balance demand and supply in the short to medium term
•  The Border Exception project: an initiative designed to allow certain priority schools and ECE
centres to recruit up to 300 international teachers and grant them the ability to enter New
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Zealand through an otherwise closed border. This project was announced by the Minister in
June and goes live at the end of September. Crucially, the project grants prospective
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teachers the right to enter NZ but does not guarantee an MIQ place: applicants will enter the

same general process as others.
•  Initiatives designed to improve either the supply or distribution of teachers. We are
reviewing the impact of each initiative and will propose adjustments, and potential new
initiatives (within existing budget) in our Education Report to the Minister planned for
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October.

Looking ahead – research and future policy options
The Teacher Supply team is working on four long-term work strands:
•  Research into how we can better attract candidates in priority subjects or topics, especially
if the border remains closed into 2022 and we are less able to recruit international students.
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In particular, this includes te reo Māori teachers, STEM and ECE teachers.
•  Deepening our regional and local understanding of demand and supply. To date, our view of
teacher supply/demand is almost entirely at the national level. We are exploring how to
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build a better understanding of regional and local supply needs and to evolve our initiatives
to better target specific local needs.
•  Building a stronger link between the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) pipeline and
demand/supply needs. To date, there is no systematic plan for the number and subject-mix
of teachers we train vs. the number and subject-mix of teachers we need. We are working
with Education System Policy to explore how to address this gap. Note that there is typically
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a three-year lag between a teacher entering ITE and being classroom ready.
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  How to fill in the data gaps in our current understanding of the teacher labour market, with
Education Data and Knowledge. This includes better national-level modelling of likely
demand and supply gaps and developing stronger early warning indicators of potential
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supply challenges, especially in the early learning sector.

Contracts and Implementation
We are the implementation hub for the series of Education Workforce initiatives focussed on
increasing the recruitment and retention of the teacher workforce.

We do this by managing and administering more than $45m of existing scholarships, awards and
teacher supply programmes, and working with the Teacher Supply and Strategic Design teams to
implement and monitor the new programmes. This includes management of all contracts and
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panels. (Payroll’s contribution to this work is also summarised below, on p 60 & 62).

Our work includes the TeachNZ scholarship programme, which aligns to the Ministry of Education’s
goal of shaping an education system that delivers equitable and excellent outcomes for all. Along
with Teacher Supply, we are working to establish a monitoring and evaluation programme to
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understand the effectiveness of our scholarships, grants and awards. Another focus is designing,
building, implementing and operating a new solution for administering scholarships, grants and
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awards, including debt management.

TeachNZ scholarships help enable equitable access to teaching by reducing and minimizing the
significant barriers that prevent some individuals in Aotearoa New Zealand from starting Initial
Teacher Education.
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It addresses equity by supporting people from communities historically underserved by the
education system to start ITE and grow a workforce that is representative of learners.
And it supports the system to deliver excellent outcomes by getting the right teachers in the right
place at the right time. For example, scholarship criteria are weighted to address areas that are
experiencing teacher supply challenges, such as Science, Technology, Maths, Te Reo Māori, and
specific sectors, such as Early Learning, Secondary, Māori Medium.
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Employment-based ITE aims to attract high calibre students into teaching and give them the skills
and knowledge they need to meet the needs of diverse learners.  Under employment-based ITE,
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teacher trainees are employed by schools as teachers while studying for their teaching qualification,
instead of being based in universities.

It allows teacher trainees to earn while they learn, build confidence with more in-classroom
experience, while being supported by a strong mentoring programme. The Ministry of Education
provides funding for a mentor teacher.
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The role of mentoring a trainee teacher is a partnership between the ITE provider, the school Board   1982
and the fully registered associate teacher(s).

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Teach NZ campaigns

Education Workforce runs reach and engagement campaigns to attract new and returning teachers
to the workforce, and to promote scholarships and awards. We are currently planning for our new
campaign to launch in October, to align with the major recruitment period for ITE courses and for
schools and early learning centres.

Our most recent school campaign began on the 7 May 2021 with radio ads, followed by the launch
of digital content on 30 May. The aim is to bring awareness of the Domestic Recruitment Agents,
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Domestic Relocation Grant, and Teacher Education Refresh initiatives, as well as a layer of

awareness of teacher recruitment in specific subjects/areas.

Our target audience is made up of a mix of returning/existing teachers, with additional layers of
STEM background, and a focus on Māori and Pacific audiences. We also have a regional focus for our
Teacher Education Refresh initiative. Examples of current collateral follow:
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Business Support
This unit supports the Associate Deputy Secretary in effective management of the Education
Workforce group in line with agreed priorities, resourcing, budgets, and quality expectations. It
works to create that encourages high performance, engagement, collaboration across teams,
knowledge sharing, ongoing learning, creativity, and innovation. It supports the Associate Deputy
Secretary to lead and implement improvements and/or changes across the group.
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Business Support delivers unit wide business planning, financial management (budgets and
expenditure) risk, procurement, and resource management capability (recruitment and induction). It  1982
provides the Ministerials function for Education Workforce responding to OIAs, parliamentary
questions, ministerial correspondence etc, as well as reporting to the Education Workforce and
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the Education Learning and Student Achievement Leadership Teams.

Priorities for 2021/22 include:

•  Building the Māori cultural competency within our group
•  Embedding consistent planning, reporting, resource management, financial management,
team leadership and risk management systems across Education Workforce
•  Recruitment of permanent staff to fill positions in our structure.
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The Education Workforce

Ministry data about the education workforce is published on www.educationcounts.govt.nz. This
includes demographic data, research and our Teacher Demand and Supply tool.
Overview of school teachers in 2020
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State and State-integrated schools
The schooling workforce is approximately 140,000 staff on a variety of employment agreements.
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New Zealand has 2,536 schools and kura, which collectively employ around 55,000 full time teacher

equivalents (FTTE) and significant numbers of administrators, teacher aides, caretakers, cleaners and
other support staff. Each school or kura is established as a Crown Entity under the Education and
Training Act 2020. School boards are the legal employers of staff and have the power to appoint,
suspend or dismiss staff.
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While school boards are the employer, responsibility for the negotiation of conditions of
employment via collective bargaining for school and kura workers sits with the Public Service
Commissioner. The Commissioner must conduct negotiations in consultation with the Secretary for
Education and representatives of school boards.

In practice the Commissioner typically delegates these accountabilities to the Secretary for
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Education. For the purposes of bargaining, employees in the education sector are treated as
employees of the Commissioner.

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Similar arrangements apply under the Equal Pay Act (1972) where the Public Service Commissioner is
treated as the employer and determines a Pay Equity claim is arguable, and must enter into the pay
equity bargaining process in consultation with the Secretary for Education and representatives of
school boards. In practice the Commissioner typically delegates these accountabilities to the
Secretary for Education.

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Early Learning
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There are around 4,660 licenced early learning services employing around 30,500 early learning

teachers, as well as large numbers of support staff. Early learning services are not part of the
education service and the conditions of employment of early learning workers are those which they
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have agreed with their specific employer. There is a wide range of employers within Early Learning

ranging from community not for profit groups to large corporates. Pay Equity claims are therefore
raised with these employers directly by individuals, or their union, and each employer is responsible
for considering and addressing the claim. The exception to this is Kindergarten Teachers who are
considered to be part of the education service, and thus the Secretary for Education is responsible
(on delegation from the Public Service Commissioner) for negotiating conditions of employment and
pay equity bargaining for these teachers.

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Sector contacts and relationships
Education Workforce has extensive relationships with representatives of the education workforce, in
particular the PPTA (Post Primary Teachers' Association) and NZEI Te Riu Roa.

Most obviously these relationships take place in the context of collective contract negotiations and
pay equity claims. Less visible, but no less important, is the work we do with the unions in areas as
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diverse as Teacher Supply initiatives, COVID-19 response, Scholarships and Awards, and general ER
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advice to the sector. Several of the scholarships and awards that we manage to achieve teacher

supply initiatives are included in collective employment agreements. We also work with other sector
bodies including the Teaching Council, the New Zealand School Trustees Association, and other
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unions. As well as our own work, we often engage or consult with the unions on behalf of other

Ministry teams.

In October 2019, the Secretary for Education signed an Accord with NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Post
Primary Teachers' Association to resolve complex issues in the education system, such as workload
and the future education workforce.

These issues have included removing the principal’s assessment process that existed at the time, the
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Education Workforce Strategy, career pathways for Teacher Aides, and the wellbeing of the

education sector workforce. As the Accord was established during the last bargaining round, it would
be timely to consider how it operates in the lead up to bargaining the large agreements in 2022.

In the early childhood sector, we work with both individual providers, and with sector bodies such as
the Early Childhood Council.
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Education Workforce manages a large number of email boxes for employment relations and pay
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equity, scholarships and awards, and the Border Exception project. There is work underway to

consolidate these. We also run [email address] as an internal
workflow mailbox. These email boxes include:

Topic
Email address
under
Education Workforce Strategy
[email address]

Employment Relations
[email address]
Kupe Scholarships
[email address]
Ngarimu Scholarships
[email address]
Pay Equity
[email address]
Prime Minister’s Education Excellence
[email address]
Awards
Study Awards
[email address]
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Teach NZ Bonding Scheme
[email address]
Teacher Supply
[email address]
Voluntary Bonding Scheme
[email address]
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s9(2)(f)(iv)82
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Central Agencies including Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, DPMC, Treasury and MBIE
may be invited by the Executive Sponsors, through the Central Agencies Governance Group, to
attend the Bargaining and Pay Equity Governance Group as “interested advisors”.

The BPEGG Terms of Reference (as at February 2021) are attached as Appendix 2. The Education
Workforce Group provides the secretariat for BPEGG.
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Delegations

Aside from standard Ministry financial and human resources delegations, most delegations in
Education Workforce relate to our employment relations and pay equity work. These are (as at
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August 28, 2021) included as Appendix 3. Full details of your delegations will be provided in other

documentation within your Induction and Reference Pack material.

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Education Payroll

Introduction to the schools payroll
The Secretary for Education is required under Section 578 of the Education and Training Act 2020 to
provide a payroll service to be used by Boards of Trustees of State and State Integrated schools for
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their employees.

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The schools payroll is the largest in NZ – it distributes around $6.0bn annually to around 96,000
teachers and support staff in around 2,500 schools on a fortnightly basis.

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The Ministry is responsible for:
•  Setting the long-term direction of the schools payroll to ensure it remains sustainable and is
delivered at acceptable risk.
•  Setting  payroll  requirements  and  monitoring  the  performance  of  the  payroll  provider
(Education Payroll Limited) to ensure that the schools payroll is provided in a manner that
fulfils the accountabilities of the Secretary for Education.
•  Managing an effective commercial relationship with the payroll provider so that contractual
obligations are met.
Information
•

  Performing such operational functions:
o  as required to ensure effective schools payroll delivery.
o  that must be retained by the Ministry due to statutory delegations, or are done on
behalf of others, eg, processing payments to school employees who are bonded and
for transport and removal costs.
Official

Talent2 went live with Novopay on 20 August 2012, and it quickly became apparent that the
Novopay service rolled out to schools had some serious system and design flaws. The degree of
the
customisation required to manage the payroll complexity led to software defects in the system,
which were not picked up due to the lack of thorough testing.

Schools experienced a system that produced seemingly random errors that they could not
under
understand, making it very stressful as they tried to ensure their employees were paid correctly.

Ongoing problems with Novopay generated much sector, media, and public interest. These problems
were highlighted in the Ministerial Inquiry into the Novopay Project.

Improvements since Novopay ‘go live’ have occurred in 3 phases:
•  Phase 1: stabilise the system and address immediate problems facing schools and employees
by reducing errors and providing better support to schools.
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•  Phase 2: improve service quality to schools, implement changes proposed by the review with
the sector of the service delivery model, improve the underlying payroll system, and ensure a
provider for the longer-term.
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Act
Information
Official
the
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IN CONFIDENCE
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Education Payroll Leadership team

Name
Position
Profile
Photo
Act
Ian Dennis
Associate Deputy
Secretary, Payroll
9(2)(a)9(2)(a)
Information
Official
the
under
30

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Donna Delaney
Group Manager,

Payroll Delivery
9(2)(a)9(2)(a)
Act
Information

Marie France
Manager Strategy
9(2)(a)
Official
the
under
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9(2)(a)
Act
9(2)(a)

Manager Payroll
Operations
9(2)(a)9(2)(a)
Information
Official
the
under
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IN CONFIDENCE
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Stuart Webster
Commercial Manager

9(2)(a)9(2)(a)
Act
Information
Official
the
under
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Education Payroll Limited (EPL)

Education Payroll Limited, a Schedule 4A Public Finance Act company, was set up solely to deliver
the schools payroll. EPL took over delivery of the schools payroll in October 2014 following the
settlement with Talent2 to resolve contractual and service issues. The purpose of the company as
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stated in its constitution is to:
•  Provide  a  schools  payroll  service  to  the  Ministry  of  Education  that  ensures  school  payroll  1982
information and entitlements are accurately recorded, school staff are paid correctly and on
time, and payroll information is easily accessible to both schools and the Ministry.
•  Exclusive  services  –  The  Company  will  only  provide  payroll  services  to  the  Ministry  of
Act
Education unless authorised to do otherwise by the Shareholding Ministers.

9(2)(b)(ii)

9(2)(g)(i)



Information
EPL has two shareholding Ministers – the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Education.

The Chair of the EPL Board is Sandi Beatie and the Chief Executive is Arlene White. Other EPL Board
members are Colin MacDonald, Marcel van den Assum, and newly appointed this year, David
Skinner and Liz Maguire. Information about the EPL Board and management team can be found in
Official
the links.

the
EPL operates from Wellington and has the capability to deliver the pay when staff are working from

home, as the COVID-19 lockdowns have demonstrated. The school account team is the first point of
contact for school administrators seeking payroll expertise and provides telephone and email
support to schools. School employees’ point of contact with the schools payroll/EPL is through their
school administrator.
under

9(2)(j)

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9(2)(j)
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9(2)(j)

Act
9(2)(j)

Information

9(2)(f)(iv)

Official

9(2)(j)

the

under

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Shareholding ministers approved funding for the Education Payroll Development Programme (EPDP),
which included a $13.2m loan from the Treasury’s New Zealand Debt Management. Repayments of
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the loan start in 2021/22, with final repayments in June 2024. EPL’s cash flows are adequate to
ensure these payments will be made as agreed with the Treasury in 2017. (See below for more
information on EPDP.)
9(2)(j)
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Act

Key Education Payroll Limited work programmes
EPL has several programmes of work underway that are key to schools payroll sustainability and
operations, as outlined below.

Education Payroll Development Programme
Information
The Education Payroll Development Programme (EPDP) is a 10-year programme of 24 packages of

work to provide for the ongoing stability and sustainability of the schools payroll system. It is based
on EPL’s review of its strategic direction and future investment requirements outlined in EPL’s
detailed business case in 2016. This, in turn, formed the basis for Budget 2017 funding allocated to
the implementation of EPDP.
Official

EPDP implementation started on 1 October 2017 and was expected to be largely completed,
including EdPay (see below) by 31 December 2019. The financial and service delivery benefits of the
the
programme were to be realised over a 10-year period, ie, by the end of 2027.
9(2)(b)(ii)
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9(2)(b)(ii)

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9(2)(f)(iv)
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EdPay – the new digital service

The EdPay user interface is a key part of EPDP, 9(2)(g)(i)

It is due to be completed by the end of 2022.
Act

EdPay aims to make it easier for schools to carry out their payroll responsibilities, to reduce the need
for payroll processing staff at EPL and improve schools payroll accuracy. EdPay has been designed
with schools for schools, and functionality has been progressively tested with, and rolled out to,
schools since March 2019. All schools have had access to some EdPay functionality from October
2019. EPL reports good uptake, with 1,625 (of around 2,500) schools using it as at the end of August
2021, and high customer satisfaction.

Information
Most high-volume tasks are now fully online in EdPay (or will be shortly); EdPay will replace Novopay

Online, the original user interface, which is being decommissioned in October 2021. EdPay
operational efficiencies include streamlined handling of payroll instructions from schools and
increasing system validation to prevent errors. This remains a work in progress, with more to be
done to reduce handling at EPL and prevent input errors.
Official

Oracle and Ascender upgrade
The need for an upgrade to the Oracle database technology and Ascender Pay was foreseen in the
the
2016 Schools Payroll Detailed Business Case – it is one of the 24 EPDP work packages. Discovery
work by EPL in 2019 revealed that both upgrades would be more complex, time-consuming, and
costly than envisaged in the business case. s9(2)(g)(i)

under

Funding of $10m was provided in Budget 21 for the Oracle database upgrade project. EPL has made
good progress and is confident it will be completed before the planned date of June 2022.

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9(2)(g)(i)

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9(2)(g)(i)

Work to upgrade the Oracle database also
necessarily extends into other associated components within the schools payroll ecosystem.
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9(2)(g)(i)



Act


9(2)(g)(i)

9(2)(f)(iv)



Cyber security
Cyber security and data breaches pose an increasing threat to maintaining a secure and stable
Information
schools payroll platform. EPL continues to focus and build on key capabilities to deliver cyber
security consistent with recommendations from the National Cyber Security Centre and good
practice. The Ministry’s IT team holds the relationship with the EPL IT team for IT issues.
Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery plan

Official
EPL has both a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan and these are
regularly tested. All EPL staff have laptops and can work from home. Resilience has been tested and
proven when all staff worked from home in the COVID-19 lockdowns. s9(2)(g)(i)

the

9(2)(g)(i)

under

. 9(2)(f)(iv)



EPL’s Information technology and communications ecosystem is as follows:
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•  EPL  runs  production  from their  own  computer  hosts s9(2)(i)


•  s9(2)(i)   runs  the  host  systems,  and  EPL  staff  run  the  payroll  application,  rekeying  of
transactions and provide help desk services to schools.
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•  s9(2)(i)  provides the high-speed backbone network between hosts and key sites.
•  Spark provides network for learning (N4L), this is a private data network that goes to 2,500
schools. N4L is a crown company, and its role is to provide a data network to all schools.
•  s9(2)(i)
provides a range of desktop services to EPL
•  The Ministry IT group also provides some services and oversight in critical areas, eg, the Oracle
database upgrade and cyber security.
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Proposed changes to the fortnightly payroll bank file transfer mechanism, cessation of stop
pays and implementation of a fixed payroll instruction cut-off date
Westpac is changing the mechanism by which EPL transfers the fortnightly payroll file. s9(2)(f)(iv)
Act

Westpac has also advised it will no longer be accepting stop pay requests. These are last minute
instructions to stop the payment of funds to an individual after the bank file has been generated,
Information
usually to avoid overpayment. The process does not have robust controls and was developed
because the system has significant gaps in its operational controls. These gaps include allowing
schools to enter payroll instructions after the published cut-off date and not having any option to
make payments to employees outside the payroll fortnightly cycle. The suite of work to end the stop
pay process will address these existing operational gaps and reduce fraud risk.
Official

A fixed cut-off will be developed as part of this change, making it impossible for schools to enter
the
information into the system after that date. Schools will then have one (rather than two) draft Staff

Usage and Expenditure (SUE) reports that must be checked prior to the payrun being completed to
ensure their payroll instructions are correct. The potential for last minute errors to be made by the
school after the fixed cut-off date is removed, making the final draft SUE report more accurate. It
also reduces the time available to schools to make changes to their payroll. EPL plans to run one out
under
of cycle pay on the Friday of each pay week if there are essential changes to be made. This will have
strict criteria and will be mainly used to correct EPL payroll advisor error. Given the change for
schools, and that they may see it as making it harder to fulfil their responsibilities, EPL is developing
a communications strategy which will involve advice to the Minister.

Holidays Act compliance
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The schools payroll is not compliant with the Holidays Act 2003. This issue is not unique to the
schools payroll – non-compliance is common to employers across New Zealand, in both the private
and public sectors. The Holidays Act introduced provisions that proved difficult for payroll providers
39

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to implement. This has been particularly problematic where employees have fluctuations in the
hours they work or receive additional pay on top of their normal wages, as is common in the
education sector.

Funding has been provided in successive Budgets for the work to ensure the schools payroll is
compliant. There is also funding set aside for remediation payments – see section below on
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remediation.

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In 2016, a review of the schools payroll was undertaken and identified high-level areas of non-
compliance.  A project team was subsequently set up to identify the root causes of the non- Act
compliance. s9(2)(f)(iv)





9(2)(g)(i)

Information

In 2020, the Government accepted the recommendations of the Holidays Act Taskforce and work is
now underway on drafting amendments to the Holidays Act. As a result, in early 2021 we changed
our focus from achieving compliance with the existing Holidays Act to achieving compliance by
remediation until the amended Act is in place and the payroll system is compliant. This change in
focus means we avoid developing service designs and payroll IT system changes which may become
Official
redundant or need to be re-worked when the amended Act is in place, and that we engage with
schools on one set of changes only.
the

Our Payroll Group Manager is now a member of the Holidays Act Better Rules Committee being run
by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) as part of the work to amend the
Act. This will provide valuable insight into the work to prepare draft legislation and undertake public
consultation on implementation of the Holidays Act Taskforce recommendations. 9(2)(f)(iv)
under


9(2)(f)(iv)
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9(2)(ba)(i)


1982

9(2)(f)(iv)
Act
9(2)(f)(iv)
Information
Official
Funding of $375.6m has been set aside for remediation payments to current and former school
employees. This remains an estimate until we finalise the remediation dataset and rules. It does not
the
cover the two issues mentioned earlier, teachers annual holidays and annualisation, is based on

2018 data, and includes a number of agreed assumptions. 9(2)(g)(i)


Portal for remediating former employees
under
A key activity in the broader Holidays Act programme is to establish contact with former employees
to enable payment of remediation to them. We have committed to the Sector Working Group that
they will be involved in the process to ensure the look and feel is user appropriate. The key
resources and capabilities required to achieve this are:

•  Outbound communications to reach former employees and encourage them to register their
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claim  for  remediation.  This  will  involve  appropriate  broadcast  channels  (eg  social  media,
advertisements) and using last known contact details to send individual communications.

9(2)(g)(i)

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•  An online portal that allows former employees to register their potential claim. They will be
asked to provide some basic details that allow us to match them to their payroll records, and
the information needed to process a payment, eg, current tax code and bank account number.
•  Validation rules in the portal will allow some applications to be automatically processed with
minimum human intervention, for example, lower value payments where the individual’s tax
code  and  bank  account  numbers  match  historic  payroll  records  may  be  automatically
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approved.
•
1982
  Resources to respond to individual queries, resolve errors in claim documents, process higher
value or complex remediation claims or escalate to the Ministry as appropriate. Owing to the
scale  of  potential  claims  we  are  aiming  to  process  most  applications  with  minimal  or  no
Act
individual contact required.

•  Payroll  processing  capability  to  make  one-off  payments  to  former  employees  as  they  are
received, processed, and approved.

The majority of this activity is being sourced externally. EY was chosen through an RFP process
earlier this year to provide their existing and proven remediation portal capability and support
resources.

Information
EY’s services will cover the first four core capabilities listed above, and an escalation path will be

developed for Ministry staff to work with unusual or complex queries. 9(2)(j)

9(2)(f)(iv) Official
the

Holidays Act Sector Working Group
We have a well-established Sector Working Group supporting our Holidays Act remediation work.
9(2)(f)(iv)

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Members are as follows:
Member
Organisation
AWUNZ (Amalgamated Workers Union NZ)
E Tū
9(2)(a)NZEI Te Riu Roa
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PPTA (NZ Post Primary Teachers Association/Te
Wehengarua)
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PSA (Public Service Association)
SPANZ (Secondary Principals Association NZ)
NZSTA (New Zealand School Trustees Association)
Act

Labour Inspectorate

Achieving Holidays Act compliance for teachers and principals
Achieving Holidays Act compliance for teachers and principals, particularly in relation to their leave
provisions, while accommodating the unique practices in schools, is challenging. The Employment
Relations team is leading this work, which comes under the accountability of the Holidays Act
Information
Programme.

9(2)(f)(iv)
Official
the

9(2)(j), 9(2)(ba)(i)
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9(2)(j), 9(2)(ba)(i)
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Act

We are also continuing to work with officials from MBIE, along with Te Kawa Mataaho on possible
options and next steps. They are supportive of our proposal to engage with a wide range of
stakeholders in the sector to develop a workable and compliant solution.

9(2)(f)(iv)
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(g)(i)

•  9(2)(g)(i)

•  9(2)(j)
•  9(2)(g)(i)

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Act

Information


•  9(2)(g)(i)

9(2)(f)(iv)
Official
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9(2)(f)(iv) 1982
Act
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(f)(iv) 82
1982
Act

9(2)(f)(iv)
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(f)(iv) 82
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Act
9(2)(f)(iv)

9(2)(f)(iv)
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(f)(iv)
1982
Act

s9(2)(g)(i)
Information
Official
the
under
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Act
Information
Official

9(2)(f)(iv)
the
under
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We are using a cross-project approach for engaging with education sector representatives (unions
and associations), largely piggybacking off the Holidays Act Programme Sector Working Group.
s9(2)(f)(iv)

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s9(2)(f)(iv)

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Act
Information
Official
the
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ISAE 3402 Type 1 and Type 2 reporting
Fit for purpose controls and assurance are a bottom line for any organisation, more so in an
environment such as the schools payroll, for the reasons noted above. It is also a requirement under
the MSA that EPL has an assurance framework that is consistent with good industry practice.
The use of an ISAE 3402 assurance report is an internationally recognised and commonly used
method for outsourced service partners, including bureau and cloud type service providers. 9(2)(g)(i)
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9(2)(f)(iv)
Act
Information
Official
the
under
9(2)(g)(i)
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Act
Information
Official

9(2)(g)(i), 9(2)(ba)(i)
the
under

9(2)(g)(i), 9(2)(ba)(i)
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9(2)(f)(iv)
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9(2)(f)(iv), 9(2)(g)(i)
1982
Act
Information
Official
9(2)(f)(iv)

the
9(2)(g)(i)
under

9(2)(g)(i)
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Act
Information
Official
9(2)(f)(iv)
the
under

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Act
Information
Official
Strengthening our schools payroll monitoring framework
Schools payroll performance is monitored primarily through the Payroll Operations Board, which is
the
provided with data on the KPIs and a range of operational measures at each meeting. 9(2)(f)(iv)

under

9(2)(g)(i)

.

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Act
Information
Official
the
under
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Key milestones to December 2021
• 9(2)(f)(iv)

• Confirm our improved monitoring approach and expected implementation timeline.
9(2)(g)(i) 82
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Act
9(2)(f)(iv)
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(f)(iv) 82
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Act
Information
Official
the
under
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9(2)(f)(iv) 82
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Act
Information
Official
the

Schools payroll delivery
The Payroll Operations team provides support and oversight of the schools payroll in the complex,
under
high risk areas of payroll operations and ensures the successful implementation of significant

changes to payroll business rules, systems, policies and processes. The team:
•  Works closely with EPL to ensure they deliver what is required in terms of change requests
and understand the Ministry’s operational expectations for day-to-day delivery of the schools
payroll.
•  Undertakes a range of service delivery support functions, particularly ensuring that payroll
changes are made as intended, and provides an escalation point for complaints from schools.
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•  Administers two Ministry teacher supply policies that result in payments through the schools
payroll – Voluntary Bonding and Transfer and Removals.

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The team works with the Ministry’s Employment Relations, Legal, Resourcing and Policy teams, and
other groups across the Ministry and EPL to ensure the successful implementation of significant
changes to sector terms and conditions or legislation, and the implementation of new government
policies where they impact on payroll. Key workstreams are outlined below.

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Pay Equity
The Equal Pay Act 1972 is prescriptive in terms of how claims are handled from the time a claim is
1982
first submitted. The Payroll Operations team is working closely with EPL and the Pay Equity team to
ensure that our legislative obligations are met. Upon settlement of any claim, the Payroll Operations
team works with EPL, and the Employment Relations, Pay Equity and Staffing and Funding teams to
Act
implement them.

Implementation of new Collective Employment Agreements once bargaining is complete
The 14 Collective Employment Agreements (CA) applying to the compulsory state education system
and paid through the schools payroll are all due to expire in the period February 2021 to September
2022. Once settled, these will require work with the Employment Relations team and EPL to
implement. EPL has undertaken to implement settlements six weeks from the date of ratification;
achieving this target is dependent on the complexity of the settlement.
Information

The Payroll Operations team also works with the Employment Relations team and EPL to ensure that
bargaining takes account, as much as possible, of the impact of bargaining outcomes on payroll
delivery, and works through the practicalities of implementation.

Official
The first of the 14 collective agreement changes to be implemented is likely to be implemented in late
October/early  November,  depending  on  the  ratification  date  and  where  the  pay  period  falls.
Implementation of  changes  to  the  remaining  collective  agreements  is  dependent  on  the  timing  of
the
settlement.

COVID-19 emergency payments
During the 2020 lockdown emergency payments were made to school casual and relief staff. We
under
continue to build on lessons learnt from the development of the emergency payment process
undertaken at that time. In the August 2021 lockdown, these payments recommenced in pay period
12 (Payday 8 September 2021) for eligible employees across the country.

These payments continued in pay period 13 (payday 22 September) for eligible employees and
continued for employees in Level 4. Some errors were later discovered and corrections are being
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made and the cause investigated to ensure it does not recur.

The Payroll Operations team works closely with EPL and Employment Relations to ensure that the
criteria for payments are developed and implemented.
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Assessment of eligibility and payment for teacher voluntary bonding and transfer and
removal expenses
The Payroll Operations team administers two funding schemes for school staff:
•  The Voluntary Bonding Scheme (VBS) was introduced in 2009 to encourage newly graduated
teachers  to  teach  in  certain  areas  of  need  –  decile  one  and  severely  isolated  schools.
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(Webpage Voluntary Bonding Scheme | TeachNZ)
•
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  Transfer  and  Removal  Provisions  are  part  of  the  Principals  and  Teachers  collective
agreements,  with  the  aim  of  assisting  schools  to  recruit,  and  principals/teachers  to  seek
appointment,  particularly  to  remote  or  hard-to-staff  schools.  (Webpage  -  If  you’re  shifting
Act
schools – Education in New Zealand)

s9(2)(g)(i)
Information

Schools payroll governance
Over the past year we have reviewed and improved schools payroll governance. We will need to
look further at 9(2)(f)(iv)

changes required as we move from the Education Infrastructure Service into Te Puna Ohumahi.
Official

Current schools payroll Ministry governance arrangements are as follows. Membership will
necessarily change in the Schools Payroll Governance Board, and perhaps in others, given leadership
the
team changes and potential movement of other staff as the change process in the Ministry
continues and new project staff come on board.

The Associate Deputy Secretary, Payroll and the Payroll Commercial Manager currently attend EPL’s
under
Investment Board. This is a Board that reviews EPL’s Capital Programme and establishes the next

Programme Increment (PI) of work.  EPL uses an Agile methodology and arranges their work by
scrum teams and PIs. Due to a change in staffing within EPL, the next EPL Investment Board will have
very few members who have attended previous meetings.

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Summary of current schools payroll governance
Board
Chair
Purpose
Schools Payroll
Deputy
The Schools Payroll Governance Board (SPGB) is the over-
Governance
Secretary Te
arching payroll governance body for the Ministry of
Board
Puna
Education.  It provides oversight of the end-to-end education
Ohumahi
payroll strategy, policy, and operation, and assurance to the

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Mātauranga
Secretary of Education that the education payroll is:
Meets 6 weekly
will take over
•  Accurate, reliable, and compliant.
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•  Future-proofed through strategy and investment.

•  Programmes of work enable tangible benefits and
improve education payroll outcomes.
•
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  The education sector has confidence in the payroll

service.
Payroll
Associate
The Payroll Operations Board is a co-ordination and
Operations
Deputy
performance monitoring body that monitors the effective and
Board
Secretary
efficient implementation of contracted deliverables for the

Payroll
payroll services, as defined by the services and performance
measures in the MSA and associated payroll changes (including
Meets 4 weekly
change requests) between the Ministry and EPL.

In undertaking its role, the Payroll Operations Board will
manage an Annual Workplan, and optimise the delivery of
Information
payroll services through sharing relevant information and
facilitating decision making. It will evaluate, recommend, and
monitor payroll changes, identify and manage risks, resolve
issues and monitor the performance of EPL, including the
implementation of recommendations arising from any IQA.
Schools Payroll
Associate
The purpose of the Schools Payroll Holidays Act Steering Group
Official
Holidays Act
Deputy

is to advise the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) and support
Steering Group
Secretary
the Programme Director in delivering the Programme by:

Payroll
•  Advising on the Programme approach and organisation.
the
Meets 6 weekly
  •  Advising on the Programme plan and stage plans.

•  Scrutinising progress, financial performance and quality.
•  Assessing and supporting or rejecting Programme
proposals.
•
under    Making operational decisions and recommendations.

•  Assisting risk mitigation and issue resolution, and
escalation.
•  Assigning subject matter expertise to enhance
Programme outputs.
•  Using delegated authority to assist the Programme
achieve outcomes.
Superannuation  Associate
The purpose of the Superannuation Steering Group is to advise
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Steering Group
Deputy
and support the project in delivering SSRSS, TRSS, and KiwiSaver
Secretary
payroll corrections and remediation requirements to ensure

Payroll
legislative compliance and audit scrutiny.
Meets 6 weekly

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