Page 1375 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 May 2015
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In early April, there was an announcement of a backflip by Minister Burch—that the trial involving special needs schools would be ended and two full-time nurses would be reinstated in a Canberra special school. This was after a trial of the nursing telephone hotline left teachers stressed about having to perform complex medical procedures on students with high needs.
The Australian Education Union has come out in support of the teachers and strongly criticised the education directorate for allowing the trial of a medical advice phone line to go ahead in special schools. This left teaching staff struggling to meet the exacting medication schedules and health issues of the children, at the expense of teaching them. The nurses union was, quite rightly, also up in arms about the duty of care requirements that only qualified nurses should be allowed to perform medical procedures in some instances.
The Australian Education Union secretary, Glenn Fowler, stated in an interview reported in the Canberra Times on 15 April this year:
Our default position is educators should be educating. They shouldn’t be administering specialised medical treatment.
Mr Fowler added:
Unfortunately we’ve seen a case study in how not to manage change.
How not to manage change? That just about describes anything this government tries its hand at, be it the Gungahlin Drive extension or the Cotter Dam. Now it wants to go for a trifecta with the light rail experiment that could mean a billion dollar expense item for Canberra taxpayers. Yet we cannot afford nurses in special schools?
An interesting example of taking responsibility is the contrast between the bureaucracy and their political masters. At least ACT Health has had the honesty to concede that its plan to remove nurses from Canberra’s special schools probably required more investigation before its rollout. But the Minister for Health still has the temerity to filibuster and try to bluff his way out of this shemozzle; he is still adding to the confusion and uncertainty of parents.
Where is Minister Burch in all this? She is refusing to take any responsibility, despite being minister for education and disability. She is claiming that this is simply a health issue, despite the fact that we are talking about children with special needs in special school environments. There is no danger of her being accused of being too hands on; it is: “Look, no hands.” No care and no responsibility. No wonder the teachers are becoming more and more resentful and disenchanted with a minister who cannot even understand the difference between her “no back pay” edict and its impact on the 3,000 teachers she is supposed to be working with.
It is absolutely inconceivable that the government saw fit to remove nurses from Black Mountain School and Woden School, and unclear why they are so determined to deny parents of these special needs children the peace of mind that a permanent registered school nurse provides.
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