3 November 2022
John Luke
[FYI request #20780 email]
Tēnā koe John
Thank you for your email of 7 October 2022 to the Ministry of Education requesting the
following information:
I have made a request earlier this year
https://fyi.org.nz/request/17756-new-dispute-resolution-panel-to-hear-complaints-about-
state-school-board-decisions-v2#incoming-68834
May I kindly request if you have any updates on my original request and if any new
timeline been set to implementing this. It has been almost a year now, are they any
communications or emails send to minister office regarding this matter? If so, please
provide the copies.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
There have been no further updates since our last letter to you of 16 December 2021, as the
funding required to establish dispute resolution panels is not yet available.
Through Budget 2022, funding was directed to initiatives that support schools to create safe
and inclusive learning environments, which will give schools the tools to support positive
behaviour and mitigate and resolve conflict at a school level. This includes a $40 million
Regional Response Fund, designed to support engagement in learning.
An extra $18.9 million was also put into the Positive Behaviour for Learning Programme, to
ensure it is incorporating the most up to date research and is tailored to the New Zealand
context. Initiatives such as these are designed to resolve issues between students, schools
and whānau before panel intervention is needed.
Funding for the establishment of dispute resolution panels will be considered as a part of
future Budget processes.
You have also asked for any communications or emails sent to the Minister’s office
regarding this matter since your last request. In the past year, various documents have been
prepared relating to the establishment of panels and their potential funding. I am withholding
these under section 9(2)(f)(iv) of the Act, to maintain the constitutional conventions for the
time being which protect the confidentiality of advice tendered by officials to Ministers.
OIA: 1297605
National Office, Mātauranga House, 33 Bowen Street, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140. Phone: +64 4 463 8000 Fax: +64 4 463 8001
education.govt.nz
For your reference, please see the following publicly released responses related to disputes
resolution panels.
Paper
Location
References
OIA request
Ministry website
Responds to a request for
response:
https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/
information that led to
22 January 2021
Uploads/1244863-OIA-dispute-
announcement about
panels.pdf
formation of dispute
panels, how learners will
have a stronger voice, and
how the panels will work.
OIA request: 15
Ministry website
Responds to request
April 2021
https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/ relating to the process that
Documents/our-work/information-
led to inclusion of dispute
releases/responses-to-Official-
resolution panels in the
Information-Act-requests/1250948-
Education and Training
response-drp.pdf
Bill; and information
relation to the
development of new
panels.
Please note, the Ministry now proactively publishes official information responses on our
website. As such, we may publish this response on our website after five working days. Your
name and contact details will be removed.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review my
decision on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing
to [email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152,
Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Ben O’Meara
Group Manager
Te Puna Kaupapahere | Policy
education.govt.nz
