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25/09/2025
James Webb
[FYI request #32183 email]
Tēnā koe James
OIA: 1352783 – Information about contractors and fixed-term Ministry staff
Thank you for your email of 31 August 2025 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) requesting
the following information:
1. Since July 2024, how many contractors has the Ministry hired to work in the "back-
offices," i.e. in Ministry offices?
2. What was the average length of contracts?
3. How many contracts got extended?
4. What was the range of the per hour pay? What was the average?
5. Please provide the number of contractors hired per department.
6. Since July 2024, how many staff have been hired on fixed-term contracts?
7. What was the average length of contracts?
8. How many contracts got extended?
9. Which payband(s) were there hired in? What was the average salary?
10. Please provide the number of fixed-term staff hired per department.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Please note that the Ministry has no central guidance or definitions of ‘frontline’ and 'back-office'
roles. For the purposes of responding to
parts one to five of your request we are therefore
providing data which excludes our regional business groups Te Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Raro, Te
Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Whenua, Te Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Runga. Further caveats in relation to
all the data can be found below at
Appendix A.
The Ministry engages contractors or fixed-term staff only when staff are unavailable, or when there
is a need for specialised, high-level skil s that are not economic to maintain in-house on a full-time
basis, to backfil some specialised staff positions while we recruit permanently to a role, or to
manage temporary capacity chal enges in critical areas.
In November 2024, the Ministry launched Contractor Central, a new tool designed to manage
contractors and temporary workers. Prior to this date, consultants, contractors and temporary
workers were captured in a system, where distinctions between the categories was not clearly
made in the data. We are only able to report on contractors that were hired from July 2024 and
Wellington National Office, 1 The Terrace, Levels 5 to 14, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140, DX SR51201 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
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were stil active after November 2024 when their record was transferred to Contractor Central.
Providing the information for the timeframe of July to November 2024 would require manual
analysis and checking of individual records to compile, so I am refusing this aspect of your request
under section 18(g) of the Act, as the information requested is not held by the Ministry, and I have
no grounds for believing that it is either held by, or connected more closely with the functions of,
another department or organisation subject to the Act.
As outlined above, figures in response to
parts one to five of your request exclude contractors
who were hired from July 2024 and left prior to November 2024.
In response to
parts one, two and three of your request, since July 2024, the Ministry hired 316
contractors to work in the “back-office”, as defined above, with an average contract length of seven
months, 169 of which were extended.
In response to
part four of your request, please find the range of hourly pay and the average
hourly pay in the table below:
Minimum Hourly Rate Maximum Hourly Rate
Average Hourly Rate
$32.06
$279.67
$114.20
In response to
part five of your request, the number of contractors hired per department is set out
in the table below:
Business Group
Headcount
School Property
25
Te Pae Aronui
98
Te Pou Hanganga, Matihiko | Infrastructure & Digital
1
Te Pou Kaupapahere | Policy
13
Te Pou Ohumahi Mātauranga | Education Workforce
30
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
70
Te Poutāhū (Curriculum Centre)
79
Total
316
In response to
parts six, seven and eight of your request, since July 2024, the Ministry has hired
135 staff on fixed-term contracts. 41 individual contract extensions were issued for 32 staff, and the
average length of contract was 8.3 months.
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In response to
part nine of your request, the average salary was $104,537. Please find below a list
of pay bands for fixed term employees hired between July 2024 to August 2025. Copies of the
relevant pay bands have been provided below as
Appendix B.
Relevant Pay Band
Appendix B Table
IEA M4, M5, GM22
Table A
PSA A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, B4
Table B
Field Staff
Table C
Service Managers
Tables D and E
Support Workers
Table F
Intern Psychologist
Table G
Leadership Advisor
N/A (no pay band)
In response to
part ten of your request, please find a breakdown of the fixed-term staff per
department below:
Business Group
Headcount
School Property
4
Te Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Raro
37
Te Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Runga
30
Te Mahau Takiwā | Te Tai Whenua
23
Te Pae Aronui
5
Te Pou Kaupapahere | Policy
8
Te Pou Ohumahi Mātauranga | Education Workforce
2
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
12
Te Pou Tuarongo
1
Te Poutāhū (Curriculum Centre)
13
Total
135
Please note, we may publish this response on our website after five working days. Your name and
contact details wil be removed.
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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
Anca Slusanschi
Acting General Manager Integration Services
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
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Appendix A:
Caveats for parts one to five relating to contractors
• Data taken as at 10 September 2025.
• In November 2024, the Ministry launched Contractor Central, a new tool designed to
manage contractors and temporary workers.
• Prior to November 2024, consultants, contractors and temporary workers were captured in
a system where these categories were not clearly distinguished in the data. To answer the
July to November 2024 component of this query wil require manual analysis and checking
of individual records. Therefore, we can only report on contractors that were hired from
July 2024 and were stil active after November 2024 when their record was transferred to
Contractor Central. As a result, Contractors that were hired from July 2024 but left before
November 2024 have not been included in the count.
• ‘Average length of contract' is calculated based on a contractor's original start date i.e. the
start date of when they first joined the Ministry, and their most recent work order end date.
• Contractors include those hired on a temporary or contractual basis, and excludes
consultants.
• The Business Group 'Te Pou Hanganga, Matihiko' is no longer an active business group. It
ceased operations in February 2025, when School Property was established and the Digital
function moved into Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate.
Caveats for parts six to ten relating to fixed-term staff
• Data has been extracted from He Putunga Pumanawa | HRIS Employee Central system.
• Q7-10 answers are based on Q6 employees (new fixed term hires and rehires from
1 July 2024 to 31 August 2025).
• Fixed-term staff are those employed on a fixed-term contract with an end date.
• Department has been provided as 'Business Group' (the first level in the organisational
structure)
• Average salary is based on full-time equivalent base salary and does not include
allowances, overtime or other remuneration
.
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Appendix B
Table A: Managers pay scales – from 1 December 2023
Table B: PSA Collective Employment Agreement pay scale effective from 1 December 2023:
Step A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
A9
B4
B5
B6
1
$60,079 $65,001 $74,015 $84,425 $99,496 $118,371 $139,346 $164,265 $190,841
2
$61,881 $66,968 $76,345 $87,102 $102,675 $122,180 $143,853 $169,603 $197,066
3
$63,684 $68,942 $78,674 $89,779 $105,854 $125,988 $148,361 $174,941 $203,290
4
$64,886 $70,293 $80,228 $91,563 $107,973 $128,526 $151,366 $178,500 $207,439
5
$66,087 $71,644 $81,781 $93,348 $110,093 $131,065 $154,370 $182,059 $211,589
6
$67,289 $72,994 $83,334 $95,132 $112,212 $133,604 $157,376 $185,617 $215,738
7
$68,486 $74,344 $84,887 $96,917 $114,332 $136,143 $160,380 $189,177 $219,887
8
$69,414 $75,357 $86,052 $98,255 $115,921 $138,047 $162,635 $191,846 $222,999
9
$70,342 $76,370 $87,217 $99,594 $117,511 $139,951 $164,889 $194,514 $226,111
10
$71,271 $77,383 $88,382 $100,932 $119,101 $141,856 $167,142 $197,184 $229,223
11
$72,199 $78,395 $89,547 $102,271 $120,690 $143,760 $169,396 $199,853 $232,335
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Table C: Field Staff agreement pay scales (2023-2025)
Table D: Service Manager agreement pay scales 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2025
Table E: Service Manager agreement pay scales 14 August 2025 to 13 August 2027
These ranges reflect the rates agreed at ratification of the new agreement (14 August 2025)
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Table F: Support Workers agreement pay scales (3 April 2023 to 2 April 2025)
Table G: Psychologists agreement pay scales
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