Alice Springs missing one school counsellor since late 2020, NT Estimates

Alice Springs has been down one school counsellor since late 2020, it was revealed in NT Estimates.

ALICE Springs has been down one school counsellor since late 2020, it was revealed in NT Estimates this week.

Department of Education chief financial officer Brett Roach confirmed the figure after being questioned by member for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne.

“We have four positions, one vacant, but we also have the other services that happen to be on the ground in Alice Springs already to fill that void,” Mr Roach said.

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It was also revealed that in Katherine there were two school counsellor vacancies, one since October 2020 and the other since March 2021.

In total, Katherine is allocated three counsellors.

“In the Katherine regional office … that position was advertised several times, no suitable applicant was found in that process,” Mr Roach said.

“We currently have the position advertised in the location as Darwin or Katherine to try and extend those pool of applicants in there to move that service in there.

“In the second position that’s a more recent one, which is in March 21 … We’ve also advertised that a number of times, and we’re using the same mechanism to try to provide the service.”

Education Minister Lauren Moss confirmed a review into the Katherine Housing Scheme was under way, after member for Katherine Jo Hersey questioned what action was being taken to support teachers relocating to Katherine.

Housing in the town has previously been cited as a reason for a high turnover of staff at Katherine High School.

The housing scheme, first introduced in the 1990s, was revised in 2020 as it was found to be out of date.

“A revised Katherine Housing Scheme was introduced at the beginning of 2020, in which a relocation allowance is paid to new teachers rather than a private head-leased property being provided,” a Department of Education spokeswoman later told the NT News.

“We committed to reviewing the scheme in 2022; however, it has been brought forward to assess how well the model is operating.”