Annual report 2022-23

Letters of Introduction

From the Presiding Member

I am pleased to present my first Annual Report for the Education Standards Board.

The Board and I would like to thank the previous Presiding Member, Ann Doolette, for her contribution and expertise.

Ann first became involved with the Board in late 2016 and served as Presiding Member from December 2019 until September 2022.Since commencing as the Presiding Member in
November 2022, I have been impressed by the team’s commitment and dedication to achieving the Board’s vision.

The Board has overseen the development of the organisation’s Early Childhood Regulatory Strategy to ensure we continue to allocate our regulatory resources to monitor and respond to areas of highest regulatory risk.

In addition, the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care provided us with a valuable opportunity to evaluate our performance and the sector’s performance in meeting the National Quality Framework objectives and we welcome its findings.

We are committed to continuous improvement right across our functions and enhancing public confidence in the operation of education and early childhood services providers.

Alana Girvin
Presiding Member

From the Chief Executive

The past year has been one of reflection and resetting expectations for the Board and I’d like to acknowledge the team’s engagement and commitment to learning and adapting to new ways of working during this time.

In 2022-2023 we implemented a series of policies and strategies to increase transparency and enhance public confidence in the operation of the Board. We clarified both the role of regulated parties and our role as the regulator in our Regulatory Practice Statement.

We released our Compliance and Enforcement policy to articulate our role in supporting regulated parties to achieve and maintain voluntary compliance, and to provide clarity on how we respond to non-compliance.

We also released our regulatory priorities and targets for January 2023 to June 2024. It identifies where we will allocate our regulatory resources to ensure the
safety, health and wellbeing of children and to demonstrate our proactive approach to risk-based regulation.

The Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care acknowledges the need for the Board to improve its performance and we remain committed to improving our regulatory practice to enhance regulatory outcomes.

Our commitment to review services that have not been rated under the 2018 National Quality Standard is our priority area for improvement.

I look forward to strengthening our performance in regulating education and early childhood services in a manner that maintains high standards of education and
care.

It continues to be an extraordinary privilege to be the Chief Executive of the Board and I am honored to work with the Presiding Member, Board Members and
employees.

Kerry Leaver
Chief Executive and Registrar

Overview: About the Education Standards Board

The Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Board, known as the Education Standards Board (the Board), was established in 2012 under the Education and Early Childhood Services (Registration and Standards) Act 2011 (State Act). The employees of the board are commonly referred to as the ESB.

The Board is an independent statutory authority responsible for the registration and regulation of early childhood services, and registration of schools for domestic and
overseas students. The Board is responsible to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills, to ensure efficient and effective performance of its registration and
regulatory responsibilities, compliance with its legislative objectives, sound management of the organisation, and attainment of performance objectives.

The Board’s functions are set out under section 29 of the State Act and, as the state regulatory authority for early childhood education and care, the Board has specific functions under section 260 of the Education and Care Services National Law (South Australia) (National Law SA) which is adopted under the State Act.

The Board delegates regulatory powers and functions, human resources and financial management to the Chief Executive and Registrar, with further delegations to employees of the Board.

Why we regulate

Access to high quality education and care services can contribute to better social, educational and employment outcomes across a child’s lifespan.

The Board’s priority is to minimise any risks to the safety, health and wellbeing of children. We respond with regulatory action that is proportionate to the risks and
harms being addressed.

We regulate the provision of education and early childhood services in a manner that maintains high standards of competence and conduct by providers to:

• recognise that all children should have access to high quality education and early childhood facilities and services
• provide for a diverse range of services
• recognise the rights of parents to access a diverse range of service providers
• enhance public confidence in the operation of education and early childhood services.

Our regulatory framework

The Board operates under three distinct regulatory frameworks:

Early childhood education and care

We regulate early childhood education and care services under the National Quality Framework (NQF), including long day care, family day care, preschools and outside school hours care (OSHC).

The National Quality Framework includes:

• Education and Care Services National Law 2010 (National Law)
• Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011
• National Quality Standard (NQS)
• The assessment and rating process
• Approved learning frameworks.

Our regulatory activities under the NQF include assessing provider and service applications, waiver applications, assessment and rating against the NQS and proactively monitoring regulated parties’ compliance with the NQF. 

We respond to notifications and complaints received under the NQF, by undertaking investigations and recommending statutory and administrative compliance action, consistent with our Compliance and Enforcement policy. 

The agency also provides practical and constructive information and advice on how regulated parties can achieve and maintain voluntary compliance under their regulatory obligations and manage existing and emerging regulatory risk.

Early childhood services that do not fall within the scope of the NQF are known as residual services and are also subject to regulation under Schedule 2 of the State Act. These include in-home care, mobile care and occasional services. 

Residual services are regulated through a modified use of the National Law and through service-specific regulations and standards. 

Schools

We regulate all government and non-government schools providing primary and secondary education, including state government, Catholic and independent schools. 

Our regulatory activities for schools include determining provider applications, maintaining the schools register under the State Act and reviewing registration against the Standards for Registration and Review of Registration of Schools in South Australia. 

International education

We endorse schools to provide education services to overseas students for registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) and register and monitor organisations that operate student exchange programs. 

Our strategic focus

Our vision:

To make a positive difference to the lives of South Australian children and young people by ensuring they have access to high quality education and early childhood services.

Our values

Honesty and integrity	We are consistent and fair in our actions to encourage openness and transparency
Professionalism	We have a culture that strives for excellence and aims to improve productivity
Sustainability	We respond to change and proactively improve
Collaboration and engagement	We collaborate in our work practices
Accountability	We make decisions that comply with legislation, are ethical and consistent with approved policy and procedure

Our organisational structure

Our board members

The Board comprises 13 members appointed by the Governor in Executive Council on the nomination of the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Of those members:

• One (who will be the presiding member) must be a person who has, in the opinion of the Minister, extensive knowledge and expertise in the education and care of children
• Two must be from the Department for Education
• Two must be from the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia (AISSA)
• Two must be from the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools Incorporated
• Two must be from a prescribed childcare body; and
• One must be a legal practitioner.

Expressions of interest are called for the remaining member positions.

Name	Appointment type	First appointed
Ms Alana Girvin, Presiding Member	Ministerial	November 2022
Mr Greg Hayes, Deputy Presiding Member	Expression of interest	February 2020
Mr Martyn Campbell	Expression of interest	November 2022
Mr John Favretto	SA Commission for Catholic Schools	March 2023
Ms Sue Kennedy-Branford	SA Commission for Catholic Schools	March 2023
Mr Noel Mifsud	Expression of Interest	February 2020
Mr Christos Tsonis	Legal Practitioner	February 2020
Mr Chistopher Prance	Association of Independent Schools SA	July 2021
Dr Peta Smith	Department for Education	June 2020
Ms Anna Standish	Prescribed Childcare Body	January 2021
Ms Rebecca Vandermoer	Prescribed Childcare Body	November 2022
Ms Elizabeth Worrell	Association of Independent Schools of South Australia	March 2021
The following members resigned during the 2022-2023 year
Ms Ann Doolette, Presiding Member	Expression of Interest	March 2018 (resigned September 2022)
Ms Mandy Richardson	Out of School Hours Care SA	December 2014 (resigned July 2022)
Ms Susan Young	SA Commission for Catholic Schools	March 2021 (resigned December 2022)
Mr John Mula	SA Commission for Catholic Schools	July 2021 (resigned February 2023)
Ms Jacqueline Bray	Department for Education	November 2022 (resigned May 2023

Our Executive

Kerry Leaver
Chief Executive and Registrar

Kerry is the Early Childhood Services Registrar, Government Schools Registrar, Non-Government Schools Registrar and Chief Executive, responsible for carrying out the functions of the Registrar roles and the Chief Executive as determined by the Board.

Sean Heffernan
Director, Regulatory Practice and Operations

Sean leads the Early Childhood Services group, including Quality Assurance, Compliance and Investigations, and Policy and Engagement. Sean commenced in this newly created role on 5 June 2023. 

Changes to the agency 

During 2022-23 the agency created a new executive role to support the Chief Executive and Registrar in the strategic leadership of the Early Childhood Services group. 

Our Minister

The Honourable Blair Boyer MP was appointed in March 2022 as the Minister for Education, Training and Skills.

Other related agencies (within the Minister’s areas of responsibility)

• Department for Education 
• TAFE SA
• South Australian Certificate of Education Board of South Australia
• Teachers Registration Board of South Australia
• Child Development Council
• Skills SA.

The agency’s performance

Performance at a glance

In 2022-23, the agency regulated the early childhood, schools and international education sectors with a risk-based and proportionate approach that aligns with our strategic priorities for 2022-24 through the following actions:

• performed 317 service visits within the early childhood sector to administer our legislative obligations
• undertook 37 visits for validation reviews of school registration and 4 visits for change to registration assessments or evaluations
• increased the percentage of services rated under the 2018 National Quality Standards from 38% to 45%
• published our Regulatory Practice Statement and Compliance and Enforcement Policy
• published our Regulatory Priorities and Targets to support our transparency and outcomes focused principles
• responded to the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care through participation in roundtables and formal submissions communicated changes to the National Quality Framework and provided resources and guidance to regulated parties about changes to the law and approved learning frameworks. 

Contribution to whole of government objectives

The agency contributes to South Australian Government initiatives to ensure universal access to quality preschool for families with three-and-four-year-old children and accessible education for children of school age by: 

• monitoring early childhood services through quality assessment and compliance monitoring within the NQF to promote consistency in services across South Australia
• monitoring schools against the standards of registration to provide accessible, quality education from reception to year 12. 

Agency specific objectives and performance

As articulated in the agency’s Strategic Plan 2022-24, our strategic priorities are to:

• regulate schools, student exchange organisations, and early childhood education and care services with a risk and standards based approach
• positively engage with stakeholders
• support our people and improve our business.

Performance against these objectives as at 30 June 2023 is summarised below.

Objective 1: Regulate schools, student exchange organisations, and early childhood education and care with a risk and standards-based approach
Agency objectives	Indicators	Performance
Execute Early Childhood Regulatory Strategy 2022	From 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2022 under the National Quality Framework (NQF): •    Assess and rate 52 services. •    Perform 232 monitoring visits.	•    Assessed and rated 73 services. •    Performed 91 monitoring visits as assessment and rating activities were prioritised.
Execute Early Childhood Regulatory Strategy 2023-24	From 1 January 2023 – 30 June 2024 under the NQF: •    15% of services rated against previous National Quality Standard (NQS) are assessed and rated under the current NQS. •    100% of newly approved services have a post-approval visit within six months. •    100% of newly approved services have an assessment and rating within 18 months of opening.	As at 30 June 2023: •    Rated 7% of services under the current NQS. •    Undertook post approval service visits for all newly approved services. 46% were visited within six months of commencement. •    Assessed and rated all services within 18 months of opening.
Determine applications under the NQF	•    Assess and determine applications according to the law and regulatory principles, within legislative timeframes.	•    Received 1,019 applications. •    Determined 95% of applications within legislated timeframes.

Respond to non-compliance against the NQF	•    Receive and assess incident notifications and complaints. •    Record breaches of the National Law. •    Issue administrative and statutory compliance actions.	•    Received 3,448 incident notifications. •    All notifications requiring action were assessed within 24 hours of receipt. •    Received 679 complaints, with 17% (118) resulting in compliance actions. •    Recorded 1,273 breaches of the National Law and/or Regulations. •    Issued 616 administrative and statutory compliance actions.
Regulate student exchange organisations	•    Assess applications for registration of student exchange organisations. •    Issue ‘Acceptance Advice for Secondary Exchange Student’ forms as required.	•    Registered one new student exchange organisation and renewed registration for one student exchange organisation. •    Issued 16 AASES forms between January and June 2023.
Register and review registration of schools	•    Assess changes to school registration applications. •    Assess new school registration applications. •    Assess requests to remove school registration. •    Conduct 37 validation reviews of school registration.	•    Issued 21 schools with amended registration certificates, including registering eight new sub-campuses for existing schools. •    Issued 1 new non-government school with a registration certificate. •    Removed 8 schools from the schools register. •    Conducted 37 validation reviews of school registration.
Influence legislation and policy for education and early childhood programs and services	•    Contribute to the Royal Commission for Early Childhood Education and Care. •    Engage with co-and peer- regulators at a state and national level.	•    Chief Executive attended three stakeholder roundtables for three-year-old preschool, 2 stakeholder roundtables for OSHC and appeared as a witness at a public hearing.  •    Convened the early childhood reference group three times to support and inform our regulatory practice. •    The agency featured on seven national groups engaged in supporting:     •    Regulatory practice     •    Legislative reform, and     •    National strategies.
Provide advice and guidance to regulated parties to promote voluntary compliance	•    Inform the sector about their regulatory obligations and changes to the law. •    Deliver professional development opportunities for regulated parties.	•    Published 12 regulatory bulletins and 24 targeted sector updates and alerts.  •    Hosted a live regulatory forum on our regulatory priorities and strategy. •    Engaged with higher risk providers to share regulatory performance data and promote voluntary compliance. •    Engaged regularly with Department for Education to support voluntary compliance and share learnings.  •    Collaborated with Early Childhood Australia to deliver a webinar on serious incident reporting
Continually improve our practice	•    Build the capacity and capability of our employees. •    Review and update processes, policies and procedures to improve efficiency and consistency.	•    Provided training and development in:      •    Risk management     •    Regulatory practice     •    Holding difficult conversations     •    Performance management, and     •    Coaching through change. •    Undertook a comprehensive review of the corporate services function. •    Implemented a performance management framework. •    Developed or revised 20 policies and procedures.
Protect the welfare, health and safety of our team	•    Monitor our operating environment and work practices	•    Undertook a risk assessment of psychosocial hazards and developed an action plan to reduce risks.
Demonstrate a commitment to reconciliation	•    Embed reconciliation practices into our processes and culture.	•    Provided reconciliation training as part of induction for all employees. •    Updated a strategic objective to reflect the ongoing commitment to reconciliation.

Employment opportunity programs

Nil. 

Performance management and professional development

Employee performance is managed according to our Performance Management Framework which was reviewed and released in June 2023. The framework addresses a recommendation made in an external review of the Compliance and Investigations team in 2021. 

The review identified the organisation’s performance expectations, performance monitoring and defined measures of success for all employees require strengthening and improving. 

Ninety percent of employees completed a mid-year and end of year performance review with their line manager. 

Work health, safety and return to work programs 

Employee health and wellbeing

Our Employee Assistance Program offers employees three confidential professional and personal counselling sessions for themselves or an immediate family member, at no cost.

The Board also provides services such as influenza vaccination and internal communication about health and wellbeing topics.

Work health and safety management

The Work Health and Safety (WHS) Committee is the principle means by which the Education Standards Board consults and works collaboratively with employees to ensure a safe and healthy working environment.

The committee has representation from all teams and meets quarterly.

Injury management

The Board has a service level agreement with the Department for Education for management of injury claims. 

Workplace injury claims	2022-23	2021-22	% Change (+ / -)
Total new workplace injury claims	0	0	n/a
Fatalities	0	0	n/a
Seriously injured workers*	0	0	n/a
Significant injuries (where lost time exceeds a working week, expressed as frequency rate per 1000 FTE)	1	1	0%*

*number of claimants assessed during the reporting period as having a whole person impairment of 30% or more under the Return to Work Act 2014 (Part 2 Division 5)
 

Return to work costs**	2022-23	2021-22	% Change (+ / -)
Total gross workers compensation expenditure ($)	$771	$34,345	-97.8%
Income support payments – gross ($)	$35,215	$134,599	-73.8%

**before third-party recovery

Data for previous years is available at: Work health and safety and return to work performance of Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au

Executive employment in the agency

Executive classification	Number of executives
Common law contract	2

Data for previous years is available at: Executive employment in Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au

The Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment has a workforce information page that provides further information on the breakdown of executive gender, salary and tenure by agency.

Financial performance

Financial performance at a glance

The following is a brief summary of the overall financial position of the agency. The information is unaudited. Full audited financial statements for 2022-23 are attached to this report.

Statement of Comprehensive Income	2022-23 Budget $000s	2022-23 Actual $000s	Variation $000s	2021-22  Actual $000s
Total Income	5,963	6,251	288	5,746
Total Expenses	5,963	5,833	130	5,726
Net Result	0	418	418	20
Total Comprehensive Result	0	418	418	20
Statement of Financial Position	2022-23 Budget $000s	2022-23 Actual $000s	Variation $000s	2021-22  Actual $000s
Current assets	4,273	4,886	613	4,402
Non-current assets	24	0	-24	0
Total assets	4,297	4,886	589	4,402
Current liabilities	1,126	1,417	-291	1,141
Non-current liabilities	400	280	120	490
Total liabilities	1,526	1,697	-171	1,631
Net assets	2,771	3,173	418	2,771
Equity	2,771	3,173	418	2,771

Consultants' disclosure

The following is a summary of external consultants that have been engaged by the agency, the nature of work undertaken, and the actual payments made for the work undertaken during the financial year.

Consultancies with a contract value below $10,000 each

Consultancies	Purpose	Actual payment ($)
All consultancies below $10,000 each - combined	Various	12,140
Attorney-General's Dept - Crown Solicitor's Office	Legal Advice	63,410
Rosslyn Cox and Mark Williams Consulting Pty Ltd	Corporate services team review and support	36,150
RECAP Consultants Pty Ltd	Develop regulatory policies and procedures, and provide implementation support	33,300
Chamonix IT Consulting	IT Consulting	18,766
Total		151,626

Data for previous years is available at: Consultants used by Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au.   

See also the Consolidated Financial Report of the Department of Treasury and Finance for total value of consultancy contracts across the South Australian Public Sector. 

Contractors' disclosure

The following is a summary of external contractors that have been engaged by the agency, the nature of work undertaken, and the actual payments made for work undertaken during the financial year.

Contractors with a contract value below $10,000

Contractors	Purpose	Actual payment ($)
All contractors below $10,000 each - combined	Various	19,960

Contractors with a contract value above $10,000 each 

Contractors	Purpose	Actual payment ($)
Randstad Pty Limited	Temporary staff	252,736
Hays Recruiting Experts Worldwide	Temporary staff	51,240
Cirka Pty Ltd	Cleaning and waste management	33,126
Ernst & Young	Auditing service	24,790
Converge International Pty Ltd	Risk assessment	11,939
Total		373,831

Data for previous years is available at: Contractors used by Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au.  

The details of South Australian Government-awarded contracts for goods, services, and works are displayed on the SA Tenders and Contracts website. View the agency list of contracts.

The website also provides details of across government contracts.

Risk management

Risk and audit at a glance

Risk is managed through the Risk Management Committee which includes all members of the senior management team. The committee met 12 times during 2022-23 to progress its key priorities, identify and treat intolerable risks and report to the Board.

During 2022-23 the committee achievements were: 

• developed and implemented a new Risk Appetite Statement and Risk Management Procedure
• implemented an online risk register database
• reviewed and reassessed historical risk information
• refined reporting to the Board
• developed terms of reference. 

Fraud detected in the agency

No instances of fraud detected. 

Strategies implemented to control and prevent fraud

The Board follows whole of government policies for prevention and control of fraud. The Board has zero tolerance for dishonest and unethical behaviour and is committed to prevention, detection and control of fraud, corruption, maladministration, and misconduct relating to its activities. 

The Board’s detection, control and prevention strategies include:

• appropriate segregation of duties
• delegations of authority
• public sector code of conduct training for all new employees, renewed every two years
• risk register that monitors risks of internal fraud and corruption
• employee onboarding and offboarding procedures.

Serious or systemic offences against the Board and/or the South Australian public sector are referred to the Office for Public Integrity (OPI) or inquiry agencies to investigate.

Data for previous years is available at: Fraud detected in Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au.

Public interest disclosure 

There were no Public Interest Disclosures during 2022-23 under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018:

Data for previous years is available at: Public interest (formerly whistle-blowers') disclosure of Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au
Note:  Disclosure of public interest information was previously reported under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1993 and repealed by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018 on 1/7/2019.

Reporting required under any other act or regulation

Nil. 

Reporting required under the Carers’ Recognition Act 2005

Nil.

Public complaints 

Number of public complaints reported 

Complaint categories	Sub-categories	Example	Number of Complaints 2022-23
Service delivery	Process	Processing error; incorrect process used; delay in processing application; process not customer responsive.	2
Service quality	Service responsiveness	Service design does not meet customer needs; poor service fit with customer expectations.	2
Total			4

Additional metrics

Additional Metrics	Total
Number of positive feedback comments	2
Number of negative feedback comments	2
Total number of feedback comments	4
% complaints resolved within policy timeframes	50%

Data for previous years is available at: Reporting of public complaints for Education Standards Board - Dataset - data.sa.gov.au

The Education Standards Board published a revised Complaints and feedback management framework in April 2023.

Service improvements

Our early childhood service applications process was revised to include regular communication about the statutory timeframes for a decision. 
We also strengthened our Complaints Management and Feedback Framework (Framework), procedures, and website information. The Framework clarifies the agency’s jurisdiction for managing complaints and requires that complainants be:

• updated throughout the complaint assessment and investigation process; and
• provided a detailed outcome response, addressing all aspects of their complaint. 

Compliance statement

The Education Standards Board is compliant with Premier and Cabinet Circular 039 – complaint management in the South Australian public sector	Y
The Education Standards Board has communicated the content of PC 039 and the agency’s related complaints policies and procedures to employees.	Y

Appendix 1: statistical overview

Registered schools on 30 June 2023:

Numbers of schools by year on 30 June 2023