Ombudsman, Ministry of Education not bothered about getting their sums wrong

The Ministry’s Pay Parity calculator can’t deliver accurate data, because it rounds up service into years, when the policy says they must be measured in hours.

By law, centres must measure teachers’ length of service accurately to determine which Pay Parity step they should be paid at. Failure to get this right risks breaching statutory funding conditions, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars in penalties, or personal grievances for not following policy properly.

“It’s inexplicable that misinformed, inaccurate information is being put out there by a government department and no-one seems bothered. Complaints to the Minister and Ombudsman have failed. The ECE Regulatory Review cannot come soon enough,” said Simon Laube, Early Childhood Council CEO.

The ECC designed a Pay Parity calculator in 2022 that’s currently used by over a thousand ECE services. However, in December 2023, the Ministry released its own calculator in an apparent effort to compete.

The ECC’s December 2023 complaint to Minister Stanford about the flawed calculator was referred back to the Ministry of Education, who refused to take action. ECC then urgently complained to the Ombudsman – who after a nine month investigation has ruled it reasonable for the Ministry to keep offering the flawed calculator, despite the risks for operators who use it.

“ECC members using our calculator are safe, but we’re really worried about centres choosing the Ministry’s calculator, because it simply can’t deliver accurate Pay Parity assessments.

“The Ombudsman says the Ministry’s calculators’ fine print will help centres work out it doesn’t work properly. Why should centres, already bogged down in regulation mahi, have to mark the Ministry’s work?”

“If the Ministry was really trying to be helpful, they’d fix the calculator or turn it off. We’ll now be referring the matter to the Ministry for Regulation for the ECE sector review,” said Simon Laube.

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