10. Question No. 10—EducationJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First) to the Associate Minister of EducationQuestion No. 10—Education10. JENNY MARCROFT (NZ First) to the Associate Minister of Education: What announcement has she made regarding support for children at risk of disengagement from education in the Hawke's Bay region?Hon TRACEY MARTIN (Associate Minister of Education): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Yesterday I was able to tell a group of Napier principals educators iwi providers district health board representatives and police that the Government will be investing over $1 million so that they can start their Managed Move Service next year. Every school in the Napier region—40 schools; a whole city—has signed up to this. This is a great initiative that has been designed locally to help younger students at risk of disconnection from school. This is the first time that New Zealand will have a support like this for year 3 to year 8 students those aged from seven to 12. This service will act as a support structure that aims to keep students in their school or manage their moves to another school. It will be a prototype lasting three years and will be independently evaluated. The key objective is to help these students manage their behaviour stay in school and keep learning.Jenny Marcroft: How many children will benefit from the announcement?Hon Member: Not many if any.Hon TRACEY MARTIN: The Napier schools came up with this idea because they have issues around high transience low attendance high suspension and exclusions and a concerning number of students not enrolled in school. In the middle of this year there were 30 12- to 15-year-olds who weren't enrolled in school. A police officer I spoke to yesterday said he was going to visit an 11-year-old in the afternoon who hadn't been in school for a year and that this service would now give him a tool he needed to help. Unfortunately we have a problem with children disconnecting from school earlier and earlier and we have to do something about it. The Managed Move Service programme in the Hawke's Bay expects to deal with about 95 students a year over five years. This is a prototype and my hope is that as soon as possible we'll be rolling out this sort of service across the country. I hear a member from the Opposition say it's not many children; these children deserve the same amount of investment and the same amount of effort as every other child in New Zealand.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does she agree with the Secretary for Education today who confirmed another drop in the number of kids regularly attending school and can she confirm that in decile 1 electorates only 47 percent of kids are turning up and what will those initiatives do for them?Hon TRACEY MARTIN: I have not heard the statements that the member talks about with regard to the Secretary for Education so I cannot say whether I agree or disagree. With regard to there being some decile 1 schools that only have 47 percent of regular attendance I believe those figures are about right. Will this help every child in New Zealand? No. There's never been a service like this at the moment. Will this help the children of Napier? Absolutely and as soon as possible we will deliver for the rest of the children in New Zealand.