A performance audit into whether the Department of Education and Training (DET) allocates funding through the Student Resource Package (SRP) fairly, consistently and transparently has found the Department to be using outdated information in its allocation methods.
In his report, Management of the Student Resource Package, Auditor-General Andrew Greaves says that in 2018, DET allocated 93 per cent of SRP funds to government schools in a way that fairly, consistently and transparently applied the allocation method in its SRP guide.
“However, DET’s allocation method draws on outdated information about schools and their students to determine their eligibility for certain funding elements,” Mr Greaves said.
“The largest component of the SRP is based on school costing information from a small sample of schools that is now nearly two decades old,” he said.
“DET also does not sufficiently ensure the quality of data underpinning the SRP.”
Mr Greaves said that as a result, his audit found examples where funding allocations to schools didn’t always occur in a manner consistent with the SRP objective of aligning resources to needs.
“DET lacks proper oversight and consistent quality controls over the SRP and there is limited review and revision of the SRP,” he said.
“While DET is aware of many of the longstanding issues this audit identifies, it is yet to fully address them.”
Mr Greaves made seven recommendations for the Department designed to strengthen its oversight and coordination of the SRP; keep the information it used up to date; and improve the transparency over how it allocated SRP funds.
DET agreed to all the recommendations and has provided an action plan to address them.
The Auditor-General’s 85-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
