Funding instalments 2021

Learn about the funding instalments for 2021 that are associated with the settlement of both the Support Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement and the Teacher Aide Pay Equity Claim.

Level of compliance Main audience Other

Inform

  • Teacher aides
  • Boards
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Administrators
  • Payroll Administrators

We will be providing additional funding in 2021 for both the Support Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement settlement and Teacher Aide Pay Equity settlement. The additional funding is provided specifically to enable Boards to pay all eligible support staff and teacher aides the new rates.

Letters are available outlining schools’ funding instalments for the 2021 year. They can be viewed on your School Data Portal.

These payments will appear on your operational grant notice under the Manual Payments heading.

How is the estimate calculated?

  1. Firstly, we gathered anonymised payroll information about all teacher aides employed by each school in 2019. We analysed the hours worked by each staff member in that role as well as their grade and step.
  2. We then looked at what each of those roles would translate to under the new relevant Collective Agreement (CA) or Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) pay rates. We used these pay rates to work out what the base cost to each school would be using the 2019 CA or IEA rates.
  3. In addition, we estimated the additional cost to each school using the same number of staff at their new pay rates, with the realisation that not all factors will remain the same every year.
  4. We calculated what the increase between the base cost and the estimated increased cost would be for each school, noting that a proportion of the overall increase is the amount that each school is required to meet and is already provided for within the annual increase schools received in their operations grants each year. This amount was deducted from the estimated increased cost to each school.
  5. The remainder is the additional funding that schools will be provided. The additional funding includes all pay costs (for example ACC, Kiwisaver).

Which settlements do the instalments provide funding for?

Your 1 January 2021 funding instalment was split into two components:

  • Non-Teach Support CA settlement – for support staff top-up funding
  • TAPESA CA – for teacher aide top-up funding

These payments appear on your operational grant notice under the Manual Payments heading.

The Non-Teach Support CA estimate included in this payment is top up funding for the Support Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement. This funding also includes any rate increase effective from 27 November 2020.

The TAPESA CA estimate included in this payment is top up funding for the additional costs that schools will incur due to the Teacher Aide Pay Equity Settlement.

1 April 2021 instalment

From your 1 April 2021 instalment onwards (i.e. 1 July and 1 October 2021) the funding is split into the following components:

  • Non-Teach Support CA – for all settlement funding (Support Staff in Schools' CA and Teacher Aide Pay Equity Settlement)
  • CA One-Off Funding – for any approved and partially approved Exceptional Translation Funding applications.

These payments appear on your operational grant notice under the Manual Payments heading.

Tiaki Allowances

We will continue to fund Tiaki allowances in 2021 using the same approach as we have in 2020. We have used your 2019 payroll data to estimate how much funding your school may require to cover increased Tiaki allowances for your teacher aides in 2021. This is included within the TAPESA component.

Additional information

When will schools receive funding for the 2021 year?

On 1 January 2021, schools received the first instalment of funding to cover the estimated settlement costs for their teacher aides.

On 1 April 2021, schools received their second instalment of funding for the 2021 year, including an interim wash up adjustment to adjust their funding for the most recent 2020 payroll information. The April funding notice also provided details of the funding schools will receive as part of the July 2021 and October 2021 quarterly operational grants.

On 1 April 2022, schools will receive a final wash up that adjusts the estimated quarterly instalments for the actual teacher aides employed in 2021, based on the actual rates and actual hours worked.

What information is being used for the calculation?

We do not have up-to-date information about your employment of teacher aide staff for the 2021 school year yet, but we want to provide schools with additional funding as soon as possible. For that reason, we based the initial calculation for funding from your staff employed during the 2019 school year.

We know these estimates may not accurately represent the current teacher aides employed by your school, or the hours they will work in the coming year. However, it means we can provide you with some funding towards the cost of the settlement. An adjustment will be calculated in April 2022.

Which staff are included in the additional funding?

All teacher aide staff covered by either a Collective Agreement (CA) or an Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) are covered by the additional funding.

We know schools receive funding for Teacher Aides from different sources, for example through ORS/IWS, ESOL, Operations Grant or school donations scheme through Ministry funding or from other agencies such as Health, Oranga Tamariki, MSD, ACC or through local fundraising.

Regardless of the funding source, if these roles are paid by your school, they will be included in the funding calculation.

Detailed breakdown of the calculation

All quarterly funding instalments provided during the year are estimates until a final wash-up is completed in the following April. The estimates are calculated at a high level which means that they will not reconcile to your current payroll information.

We are aware that these estimates may not accurately represent the current teacher aides employed by your school, or the hours they will work in the coming year. However, by using previous years’ data to estimate your costs, it means we can provide you with funding towards the cost of the settlement in line with your regular funding instalments.

Additional information was provided to all schools as part of the April 2021 final wash up that shows more information about how your funding is calculated and any adjustments that were required.

As school payroll information is confidential and the data that we received from payroll was anonymised, we will not be able to provide a breakdown for each of your staff members. Only the role information (position, grade, step, and rate) and hours worked were provided to us to calculate the estimated costs impact between 2020 and 2021.

Will the Ministry be monitoring how the additional funding is spent?

The purpose of this funding is for Teacher Aide staff to be paid the new fair pay equity rates. Funding has been provided to ensure that schools are able to meet their obligations. If IEA teacher aide staff pay rates do not correctly reflect the new pay equity rates, this may impact future funding.
If schools do not intend to offer staff the new pay rates, or if staff do not accept the new IEA, then your entitlement to this funding will reduce. If this is the case, please contact us to adjust your funding so you avoid an overpayment.

Additional Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding adjustment

This is an adjustment for the TAPESA funding that has already been provided as part of the ORS COVID-19 Response Fund(external link) payment. The hourly rate provided to schools and kura from this response fund include the top up funding for the costs of the settlement.

A deduction will be made to reflect that schools and kura have already been funded for those teacher aide hours. The deduction is $6.22 per hour allocated.

Under/over funding impact

Where the estimated funding provided is less than the funding calculated using 2020 payroll data, you will receive the difference as part of your 1 April 2021 (quarter 2) funding instalment.

For some schools and kura the impact of the 2020 wash-up and the ORS funding adjustment would result in an over-funded position for 2020. We have looked to spread the wash-up and ORS adjustment across the remaining three quarters for 2021 funding to reduce financial impact for schools and kura affected.

There will be some schools and kura who will not receive funding on 1 April 2021 due to previous settlement funding either being overestimated or because their instalment was calculated as less than $50.

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