The Rationalist Society of Australia is calling on the Cook government to prioritise the wellbeing needs of Western Australia’s public schoolkids, instead of the coffers of religious labour-hire agencies, by allowing schools to directly employ professional wellbeing staff.
RSA Executive Director Si Gladman says that recently revealed information, sourced from the state’s Department of Education, underlines the need for the West Australian government to listen to public school communities and prioritise the wellbeing needs of children.
Documents obtained by the RSA under freedom of information laws show that up to 39 per cent of the state’s $28 million annual contribution to the school chaplaincy and wellbeing support program goes directly towards paying the administrative overheads of external service providers, primarily faith-based recruiting agencies.
The documents also reveal that public schools are increasingly pleading for the state government to allow them to use funds – including the federal government’s portion, delivered as part of the National Student Wellbeing Program – to directly hire professional wellbeing staff.
Some schools have raised concerns with the department about “religious elements” of the external providers supplying workers for the school chaplaincy and wellbeing support program, and about not being able to source workers to meet their requirements.
The documents show that the Department of Education has turned down several requests from schools to be allowed to directly hire staff and has recouped several millions of dollars from schools that were unable to engage a chaplain or student wellbeing office through the third-party providers, leaving schools feeling as if they were “forced to go without”.
Speaking today, Mr Gladman said the Cook government needed to start prioritising the wellbeing of children over the interests of third-party service providers.
“The state government talks about student wellbeing as being a priority. So it’s quite unfathomable that it opts to fund the administration overheads of labour-hire firms instead,” he said.
“Public school communities have sent a clear message to the government over recent years that they want to be able to directly hire secular professional wellbeing support workers, and the schools are increasingly pleading to be allowed to use the funds to directly hire.
“It’s time for the government to listen to these school communities and prioritise the wellbeing of students.”
The education department is currently allowing four schools to trial the direct employment option, but it continues to insist that other schools have to recruit chaplains or wellbeing officers through outsourcing arrangements.
According to the documents, the department estimates that each school would have significantly more “buying power” if they could use the funds to directly hire.
Religious labour hire firms such as YouthCARE require candidates for the chaplains roles to meet religious credentials. In 2022, in response to questions about whether it would employ Muslims or non-religious people as chaplains, YouthCARE confirmed to a local council that it only employs Christians.
The state’s Equal Opportunity Commissioner has labelled such practices in the government-funded school chaplaincy roles as constituting “prima-facie religious conviction discrimination” under Western Australia’s equal opportunity laws.
In recent years, the state’s P&C committees have, on two occasions at the conferences of the Western Australia Council of State School Organisations (WACSSO), overwhelmingly voted in support of removing religious based discrimination from the chaplaincy roles and of allowing schools to directly hire professional wellbeing officers.
Follow our campaign on school chaplaincy.
If you want to support our work, please make a donation or become a member.
Si Gladman is Executive Director at the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.