2/12/2024
Marilyn Hunt
[FYI request #29057 email]
Tēnā koe Marilyn
OIA: 1339305 – Claiming of hours for Out of Hours Music Centres
Thank you for your email of 4 November 2024 to the Ministry of Education requesting the following
information:
1. Correspondence between the Ministry of Education Wellington Regional office and
National Office between January 2021 and October 2024 regarding the correct and
incorrect application of policy in relation to what the total hours allocation covers for Out of
Hours Music Centres. This will include discussion about when it was realised that
Wellington and other regions were calculating administration hours as separate to tutor
hours, instead of including both types of hours as part of the total allocation.
2. Correspondence and documents from the same time period discussing how any
overspend in relation to code 11240 had been accounted for over the past 10 years.
3. A copy of the in-depth analysis of the programme budget and wage spend, which
revealed many schools were claiming more hours than they had been allocated.
4. Correspondence and documents relating to the recent decision to inform Wellington
Region host schools that total hours include both tutor and administration hours, and the
approach to take.
5. Any briefings to the Minister regarding the above, and the Minister's responses.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Ministry needs to extend the timeframe for responding to your request, pursuant to sections
15A(1)(a) and 15A(1)(b) of the Act, as the request is for a large quantity of information or
necessitates a search through a large quantity of information, and meeting the original time limit
would unreasonably interfere
with the operations of the Ministry, and consultations necessary to
make a decision on the request are such that a proper response cannot reasonably be made within
the original time limit.
8 Gilmer Terrace, Levels Ground floor, 1, 2, and 6-14, Wellington
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
You can now expect to receive a response to your request on or before 19 February 2025, which is
an extension of 40 working days. Please note that 25 December 2024 to 15 January 2025 and 6
February 2025 are not considered working days for the purposes of the Act.
You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate our decision to extend the timeframe for
responding to this request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Emma Drysdale
Team Manager, Official and Parliamentary Information
Government, Executive and Ministerial Services
