Lubeck MarjaSPECIAL DEBATESStudent Accommodation Inquiry—Report of the Education and Workforce CommitteeMARJA LUBECK (Chairperson of the Education and Workforce Committee): I move That the report of the Education and Workforce Committee on the Inquiry into student accommodation be noted.Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare and thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to start off this special debate into the report of the Education and Workforce Committee's inquiry into student accommodation. As the chair of the select committee I thought it might benefit the House for me to show how we came about this report and speak on the process that we went through and as well the findings of our report.In 2020 the Education and Workforce Committee for the 52nd Parliament opened an inquiry into student accommodation because it wanted to learn more about students' experiences and recommend what could be done to improve the systems and processes associated with student accommodation. The terms of reference for the inquiry while we centred them around the student experience were kept broad to allow the committee to investigate the range of issues and concerns raised through submissions but also as a means of starting a dialogue between all the parties and how we could raise the standard of student accommodation in New Zealand. We wanted to learn more about how student accommodation providers were performing in regards to pastoral care transparency of decision making and cultural competency as well as the role of those servicing student accommodation particularly for residential assistants (RAs) who tend to live on site and provide ongoing pastoral care to their residents.This inquiry was also designed to help inform the development of a pastoral care code by the Government. There is an interim code at the moment which was introduced by the Minister of Education the Hon Chris Hipkins. This interim code which was supported by all parties was introduced following the tragic death of Mason Pendrous in 2019 whilst living in student accommodation. Following the establishment of the current 53rd Parliament our select committee re-adopted the inquiry and received 148 submissions and heard 30 oral submissions including a variety of students student associations owners and operators of student accommodation and tertiary education providers.During this time the Government was continuing its work on developing the new code of pastoral care. This will set out the expectations that tertiary organisations and accommodation providers must meet for student wellbeing and safety. Our terms of reference guided our work on this inquiry and after listening to all the submitters the committee's conclusions fell into four main themes. We therefore structured our report according to these areas of the student accommodation system which seemed to be most in need of improvement.So if I then start with the first area: we heard concerns around the transparency and accountability of the governance structures present within student accommodation. Submitters told us that finding this information can be difficult and that can then lead to a lack of understanding around who is responsible for what particular decision making. We heard from the submitters that this has practical implications as a student may not be able to identify the appropriate point of contact for an issue they're having and how they can resolve that issue. The Tertiary Education Union told us for example that due to a lack of clear and accessible information pertaining to complaints processes policies and governance structures it is currently difficult for learners in student accommodation to seek adequate assistance in instances where conflict resolution is required.Now this particular issue of dispute resolution was then our second theme in our findings. We heard from students and student associations that more needed to be done to support students through the process and that some students had an apprehension about raising an issue as they felt they could potentially risk losing their home. Dr Myra Williamson spoke to this power imbalance in her submission and she compared it to a line from the Eagles' Hotel California": "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave." And I believe that this may be the first time ever that the Eagles were referenced in a submission.Submitters gave us many suggestions on how the student voice could be brought into the decision making and how information can be appropriately disseminated to enable full participation in that particular decision making. Our report recommended that student accommodation providers be required to practise the details and the outcomes outlined in the proposed education code of practice 2021. These would provide for students to be engaged in the decision making at a level where they are empowered through access to information and with access to a more strongly connected internal complaints process the New Zealand Qualifications Authority complaints process and the dispute resolution scheme in a proposed code of practice. We also investigated how wellbeing and safety of staff in student accommodation was handled. In that particular regard I want to make a mention of the high level of professionalism that there is amongst student accommodation staff. We know that accommodation staff across the board work hard and are dedicated to meeting residents' needs and ensuring residents in student accommodation have a positive experience. Student accommodation is increasingly becoming a professional career path and through the inquiry the committee heard from current and former staff who have been working in this sector for a long time and have a wealth of experience. In addition to the long-term accommodation staff are residential assistants. These roles are filled year on year by senior students and play a key part in a wider student accommodation staff support provided to residents including for example initial residential support and response in identifying situations for follow-up escalation. The committee welcomed the focus of the proposed code of practice on wellbeing and support and recommended that ongoing training should be provided to accommodation staff including RAs so they can perform their roles more effectively and raise the standard of the training that is provided.Many submitters told us including the New Zealand Union of Students' Association about specific areas they believe the training should include from understanding of the Tiriti diversity and cultural competency physical and sexual violence prevention and responding to mental health issues and suicide prevention. It became clear hearing the submissions that there was a great variety in the number of residential assistants training timing of training and also expectations on them in the role. But although accommodation staff play a vital role in supporting residents' wellbeing and safety in student accommodation it's important to remember that they are not the silver bullet. Accommodation staff sit amongst a wider support network available to residents including support provided through the tertiary education provider. So I spoke about four themes—so then I get to the final fourth theme which is the emergency preparedness of tertiary education providers and their response to COVID-19. When New Zealand went into a lockdown to prepare for COVID-19 and stop the spread the students education providers and accommodation providers faced uncertainty and that led to inconsistency in the level of support and information provided to students. We noticed that there is work being done in the proposed code to outline expectations on accommodation providers in terms of emergency response planning guidance given to residents in an emergency situation and on the reasonableness of accommodation providers' refund policies because we heard from many students about financial insecurity and they felt it was unfair that they had to pay their fees living off premises during the lockdown. So we endorse those expectations and we look forward to seeing how these submissions will inform the ongoing work that the Government is doing.I really enjoyed working on this inquiry. All members of our select committee worked really collegially and we look forward to the Government's response by early August of this year. I would like to thank everybody who made a submission during this process—the experiences that people shared with us all of their stories. They have significantly contributed to the work and the recommendations that we subsequently made to the Government. The stories that we're told will inform the next steps that this Government is taking what we're doing on the new pastoral care code of practice and the dispute resolution scheme. That particular work will be informed by all of the stories and submissions that we heard.I would also like to thank the officials the advisers and our fantastic Office of the Clerk team that supported our select committee through this particular work.I'd like to thank my committee members who all took part in this inquiry for their collegial stance during the whole inquiry so that's Camilla Belich Paul Goldsmith Jan Logie Jo Luxton Ibrahim Omer Angela Roberts Erica Stanford and Chris Baillie. Jamie Strange and Penny Simmonds get a special mention for taking part in the latter part of the inquiry. And of course it would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Chlöe Swarbrick who was the Greens spokesperson on tertiary education at the start of the inquiry and she continued to play an important part during the inquiry in this term of our 53rd Parliament. Thank you Madam Speaker."