News Flash

On 10 November 2011, the Public Service Association (PSA) attended the first consultative session provided by Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) in respect to the restructure of the Policy and Practice Directorate.

The focus of the new Directorate is on improving the welfare of children through effective and efficient service delivery. This will be achieved through improved planning, policy, practice, data collection and reporting. So far, the new Directorate has not committed to a name.

During the session, DECD advised:

There will be changes to portfolios, responsibilities and reporting relationships from the Director cascading down to ASO2/3 levels.

DECD will seek to operate within an existing Full time Equivalent count, in terms of budgetary constraints.

If  there are more roles than employees, existing ongoing employees at the same classification level with the necessary/suitable skill sets in matching roles will be confirmed in these roles. Where there are more ongoing employees at a substantive classification level with the necessary/suitable skill set than required roles, a quarantined selection process will be conducted between those ongoing employees.

Draft Transition Management Principles for the new Directorate have been released. These principles cover the procedures that will apply in relation to the transition of employees to the new Directorate. The PSA seeks member feedback on the draft transition principles in order to obtain a set of guidelines that are open and transparent. DECD hopes that the restructure will be complete within 3 months, however, the time-frame is flexible.

The PSA is focused on ensuring that members are treated fairly and equitably in this restructure. 

HOLD THIS GOVERNMENT TO ACCOUNT

15 November 2011