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Katie Woolf spoke with Minister for Education Lauren Moss on truancy · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mix
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  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: We have been inundated with messages this morning and I
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  Speaker 2: am going to get to those in just a little while,
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  Speaker 2: the majority of them flowing through during the week that was,
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  Speaker 2: And like I was saying earlier, we usually try to
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  Speaker 2: keep the political discussion a little bit lighter on after
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  Speaker 2: ten o'clock on a Friday, after an hour of well
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  Speaker 2: a lot happening.
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  Speaker 1: With the week that was.
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  Speaker 2: But we are catching up right now with the Minister
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  Speaker 2: for Education, Lauren Moss.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, minister, good morning, and good morning to the listeners.
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  Speaker 3: That has been a lively now he certainly has.
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, I usually have a bit of a
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  Speaker 2: ban on ministers after ten on a Friday, but we
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  Speaker 2: thought we are really keen to hear from you this
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  Speaker 2: morning because, as as you may have heard, throughout the week,
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  Speaker 2: we've certainly had a bit of discussion about some of
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  Speaker 2: our concerns around the territory with crime, but more so
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  Speaker 2: with this perception that there's kids that are not school
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  Speaker 2: during the day and potentially engaging in behavior that they
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be engaging in I mean, we heard from Strikeforce
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  Speaker 2: Vipra out of Alice Springs earlier in the week that
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  Speaker 2: at midday, earlier in the week, I think it was
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday, an eighty seven year old woman was walking
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  Speaker 2: in a shopping center on Hartley Street in Alice when
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  Speaker 2: she was allegedly pushed to the ground by a group
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  Speaker 2: of females. It turned out that they were young people.
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  Speaker 2: They are aged fifteen, fifteen, and seventeen. Minister, the really
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  Speaker 2: obvious question is why aren't these young people at school?
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, Katie, I think you know, it sounds like
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  Speaker 3: an obvious question, and certainly lots of people ask it,
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  Speaker 3: including myself, But you know, I think there's lots of
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  Speaker 3: complex reasons why these kids aren't at school. But I
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  Speaker 3: think it's really important that we look at what we're
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  Speaker 3: doing in education to be part of the solution down
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  Speaker 3: there in Alice Springs, and particularly looking at how we
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  Speaker 3: engage some of these kids who haven't actually been engaged
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  Speaker 3: in education for a really long time. And I think
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  Speaker 3: it's you know, it is worth noting and I think
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  Speaker 3: we all know this and it goes without saying most
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  Speaker 3: of the time, but the majority of kids across the
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  Speaker 3: territory are at school, yeah and doing you know, engaged
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  Speaker 3: and doing all sorts of things, you know, extracurricular activities
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  Speaker 3: and really engaged. But there certainly is you know, a
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  Speaker 3: small cohort of kids and some of them haven't been
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  Speaker 3: engaged in the school system for a really long time.
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  Speaker 3: And that's you know, a great concern to me as
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  Speaker 3: the education minister. And I've been really pleased to have
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  Speaker 3: a representative Department of Education in Alice just last week
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  Speaker 3: actually looking at how we can beef up that engagement
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  Speaker 3: team as well down there and what more we can do.
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  Speaker 2: So Minister, you know, I guess any of us who've
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  Speaker 2: got kids would know that when they arrive at school,
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  Speaker 2: obviously the teacher goes through the role and if you're
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  Speaker 2: not there, you know you're marked is absent. I would
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  Speaker 2: assume that if there's more than a couple of days
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  Speaker 2: where you're not at schools followed up with your parents.
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  Speaker 2: So I know that's the case with you know, with
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  Speaker 2: where my kids go to school. So what is the
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  Speaker 2: situation here if we've got kids who aren't attending school
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  Speaker 2: and it's and it's becoming a more regular thing. How
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  Speaker 2: long does it take before it's followed up by the department.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, look, I think you know, for some young people,
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  Speaker 3: obviously it wouldn't just be non attendance. There'd be a
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  Speaker 3: whole range of other indicators that a child or a
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  Speaker 3: young person needs some more support or might need some
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  Speaker 3: more intervention. But certainly when a child has been missing
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  Speaker 3: from school for a couple of days, there are school
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  Speaker 3: based responses to that. There is what's known as a
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  Speaker 3: passive role, where you know where a student might not
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  Speaker 3: have gone for a certain length of time and they
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  Speaker 3: go on to that particular role. But that again, it
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  Speaker 3: doesn't mean that that student's then forgotten about. It just
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  Speaker 3: triggers more of a wrap around response for that young person.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of misinformation there. You know,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes people think that kids get taken off the role
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  Speaker 3: and nothing happens. That doesn't happen. It just means that
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  Speaker 3: it has to trigger a bigger response. But there is
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  Speaker 3: what's known as a multi agency child safety team. It
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  Speaker 3: involves territory, families and a whole range of other organizations
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  Speaker 3: and education and Katie, you know, there was some really
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  Speaker 3: devastating coronials that were done just recently, one of the
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  Speaker 3: recommendations out of that was about these multi agency teams. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we really have to make sure we're getting better at
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  Speaker 3: coordinating the response around these teams.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, that's something that we've heard on numerous occasions,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you're talking about about young people, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in various different situations. But ministral just ask again, if
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  Speaker 2: there's a child that isn't at school for a number
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  Speaker 2: of days, so what's the process, So does the education Department?
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  Speaker 2: Does a teacher contact their parents? Like, what's you know,
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  Speaker 2: what sort of the process.
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  Speaker 3: So in terms of the process, it would happen at
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  Speaker 3: a school level first, so that would be a teacher
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  Speaker 3: or it might be the you know, some schools have
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  Speaker 3: an IW so you know, an Aboriginal Education worker or
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  Speaker 3: a home Liaison officer who might do that work on
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  Speaker 3: behalf of the school. So it is a school based
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  Speaker 3: response first, yep. But it does get to a point,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if you've got a kid who's got twenty
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  Speaker 3: absences where it can really trigger a higher level response
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  Speaker 3: and it might be a response through that multi agency
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  Speaker 3: Child Safety Well Being team through the department, But we
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  Speaker 3: do also have engagement an engagement team, a mobile engagement
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  Speaker 3: team that's actually on the ground in Alice Springs that
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  Speaker 3: actually actively engages with kids who might be in the
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  Speaker 3: mall or you know, around town who should actually be
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  Speaker 3: at school and works out what's happening with those kids.
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  Speaker 2: Now I understand, I know you're not the minister that's
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  Speaker 2: responsible for these for these parental or family responsibility agreements
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  Speaker 2: which are going to be coming into place, as I understand,
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  Speaker 2: there's work under on these. But you know, is this
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  Speaker 2: something that's being worked on right now? Where if a child,
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  Speaker 2: for example, if you have got a kid who's had
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  Speaker 2: twenty absences and there's no reason for it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: is that where these responsibility agreements are potentially going to
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  Speaker 2: kick in?
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  Speaker 1: And you know, do we need to look at.
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  Speaker 2: Punishing parents in some way if they're not actually helping
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  Speaker 2: their kids to get every opportunity available to them. Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think so. Administer Warden's obviously working very hard
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  Speaker 3: around the family responsibility orders. And you know, I make
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  Speaker 3: no mistake about it. Getting kids to school is part
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  Speaker 3: of family's responsibility. And I can imagine Katie, you know
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  Speaker 3: you probably would be having kids with conversations with your
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  Speaker 3: kids who might not want to go to school, but
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  Speaker 3: you know, if they go to school, there's that's part
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  Speaker 3: of part of life. You do it as a family
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  Speaker 3: part of life. And so there's certainly an element where
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  Speaker 3: a lot of these kids might not have an adult
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  Speaker 3: in their life that is acting in a responsible way
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  Speaker 3: for that child, and I think that's where those family
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  Speaker 3: responsibility agreements come in. There's also going to be situations,
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  Speaker 3: so Katie, where you know, there might be levels of disability,
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  Speaker 3: mental illness. You know, you might have families who are
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  Speaker 3: really trying their best to get kids to school and
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  Speaker 3: help and they're just unable to for a whole range
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  Speaker 3: of reasons. So you know, we really need to make
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  Speaker 3: sure as well we're getting the right services and the
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  Speaker 3: right responses in for those families, are supporting them in
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  Speaker 3: what they want to do. But in saying that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we do have compliance offices. So we've got engagement offices,
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  Speaker 3: but we also have compliance offices to do some more
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  Speaker 3: of that harder edged work.
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  Speaker 2: But there's no real like if they're so I guess
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  Speaker 2: what I'm trying to get to is if you've got
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  Speaker 2: you know, if there are kids that you know you're
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  Speaker 2: not talking about you know, a mental health issue, or
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  Speaker 2: you're not talking about there being you know, an adequate
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  Speaker 2: reason why they're unable to attend school and they're just
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  Speaker 2: not attending.
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  Speaker 1: They're wagging, you know, and then you've got them.
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  Speaker 2: At Casuarina hanging out in the car park, or they're
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  Speaker 2: at you know, out in Alice Springs then knocking an
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  Speaker 2: eighty nine year old woman over what you know, what's
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  Speaker 2: the process from the Education Department's perspective, or what can
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  Speaker 2: be done to try to engage these kids.
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  Speaker 1: And stop them from engaging in bad behavior.
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  Speaker 3: I think personally, look, I think what's happened out of
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  Speaker 3: the Youth Hub in Alice Springs has been really good.
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  Speaker 3: The Department of Education supported some of the school holiday
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  Speaker 3: programs and had engagement offices in the youth hub actually
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  Speaker 3: talking to kids and finding out whether they were enrolled,
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  Speaker 3: you know, where they were engaged. And we've actually been
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  Speaker 3: able to follow what's happened with those young people in
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  Speaker 3: terms of term one, whether they've re entered school and
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  Speaker 3: what's happened and how we support them through that. I
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  Speaker 3: think there has to be more of that. But one
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  Speaker 3: of the things that I am rarely delving into you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm obviously kind of six months into the new role,
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  Speaker 3: but one of the things that I am really really
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  Speaker 3: focused on, Katie, is our flexible learning centers, our flexible
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  Speaker 3: education and you know, are they working for disengaged kids,
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  Speaker 3: are they working for the community, are they working for schools?
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  Speaker 3: And if not, why not? You know, I went and
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  Speaker 3: had a look at Alice outcomes last time I was
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  Speaker 3: in Alice. They've got about twenty kids, some of whom
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  Speaker 3: have come through the detention centers. Some might be you know,
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  Speaker 3: it might be a young mum who just can't go
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  Speaker 3: to school five days a week that wants to finish
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  Speaker 3: year twelve, and they are getting really fantastic results. So
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  Speaker 3: for me, what's working there and how do we do
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  Speaker 3: more of that is absolutely my focus. So we'll have
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  Speaker 3: Parmerson Youth Skills Center that will open up this term.
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  Speaker 3: But I think we've already got some of these facilities, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: and we've actually got to say are they working for us?
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  Speaker 3: And if not, what do we need to change? Because
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  Speaker 3: that's the thing we can do immediately.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, we are going to try and catch
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  Speaker 2: up with Minister Warden at some point in the near
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  Speaker 2: future as well to talk more about those parental responsibility
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  Speaker 2: you know, agreements and things like that too. I do
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  Speaker 2: want to ask, though, where are we at with the
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  Speaker 2: return of school based constables.
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  Speaker 3: So there are a number of school constables that have
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  Speaker 3: already gone back into schools. Is from memory, there's three
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  Speaker 3: on rotation through some of the dark Greater Darwin Regions schools.
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  Speaker 3: Katherine High School just got their school based constable back
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  Speaker 3: yesterday and the Department of Education and working with police
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  Speaker 3: around what the longer term model looks like so that
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  Speaker 3: we might be able to grow that and make it
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  Speaker 3: more sustainable. But it's certainly something we were very committed
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  Speaker 3: to bringing back after it was scrapped by the former government.
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  Speaker 3: We're very committed to it. And you know, obviously COVID
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  Speaker 3: meant that police resources were pulled to borders and airport
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  Speaker 3: and things like that. But they're returning back into schools.
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  Speaker 2: And is it something with those school based constables? Is
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  Speaker 2: it something that the that you guys have consulted with
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  Speaker 2: the Police Association on as well.
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  Speaker 3: So I understand absolutely the Police Association are an active
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  Speaker 3: part of those discussions, as are the Council of Government
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  Speaker 3: School organizations who do work with school councils, so we're
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  Speaker 3: definitely having active conversations with them about what that looks
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  Speaker 3: like over the longer term. So we're still working through that,
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  Speaker 3: but very very committed to it. It's really important, I
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  Speaker 3: think for you know, obviously the presence in schools is
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  Speaker 3: really important, but just building that relationship I think between
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  Speaker 3: police and young people in a great way and that respect,
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  Speaker 3: I think is the most important part of that program.
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  Speaker 3: So very supportive of it and have seen it doing
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  Speaker 3: wonderful things at my local schools.
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  Speaker 2: And kas So at the moment, did you say there's
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  Speaker 2: three on rotation at the moment? How many are we
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  Speaker 2: hoping to get to?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I couldn't give you the final number at the moment, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: as we're just working through that, but yeah, there's about
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  Speaker 3: three I understand on rotation across the number of schools
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  Speaker 3: at the moment, and the one back in Katherine, which
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  Speaker 3: is fantastic news. She's a longstanding youth engagement police officer,
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  Speaker 3: well respected there. But look, there is so much more
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  Speaker 3: work to do in this space, Katy, and I'm under
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  Speaker 3: no illusions about how big my job is, but I
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  Speaker 3: thought it was really important to talk to you and
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  Speaker 3: you know your listeners today, because I do think education
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  Speaker 3: is a really fundamental part of it.
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  Speaker 1: I agree trying.
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  Speaker 3: To just turn things around, and it might not just
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  Speaker 3: be the traditional classroom. I think we have to think
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  Speaker 3: outside the square.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, Minister. Can I ask you there's a
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  Speaker 2: question from one of our listeners. It says Katie. When
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  Speaker 2: I was young, I had to make sure that I
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  Speaker 2: had a letter in my school diaries, signed by both
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  Speaker 2: parents and the school each time I was at Casarina
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  Speaker 2: during school hours.
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  Speaker 1: What's changed?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, Look, I wouldn't. I think in terms of every
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  Speaker 3: school there would be a process for signing out and
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  Speaker 3: signing back in and an expectation that kids are at school.
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  Speaker 3: So in terms of being able to speak for that
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  Speaker 3: process aticular school, I wouldn't be in a position to
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  Speaker 3: do that. But I do know that obviously there are
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  Speaker 3: policies at every school about accounting for absences and how
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  Speaker 3: that's tracked. And I think we're actually much better at
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  Speaker 3: tracking that now in terms of data collection and the
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  Speaker 3: systems available to us than in the past. So it's
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  Speaker 3: just about getting better at, you know, identifying those bread
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  Speaker 3: flags earlier and I really coming in around those families
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  Speaker 3: as quickly as we can. But look, every kid is
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  Speaker 3: still expected to be at like they were when we
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  Speaker 3: were all at school.
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  Speaker 1: Minister for Education Lauren Moss. We will leave it there.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciate you having a chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you again soon.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you