Hipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7968. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Why has funding for the early intervention service declined since 2010 when the ministry has reported that demand for the service is rising and its ability to respond to referrals on time is declining?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): I am advised that funding for the early intervention service has not declined since 2010. What the member will be referring to is a reduction in expenditure in the early intervention service arising from the centralisation of support functions at a regional level between 2010 and 2011. Ensuring greater efficiency in the support functions of the ministry has enabled it to provide services to a greater number of children. The demand for the early intervention service has increased significantly. This year the service assisted an additional 2818 children with early intervention services over our target for 2014-15. This is in part due to the success of the Government’s focus on more children participating in quality early childhood education.Chris Hipkins: Why did she indicate in answer to written parliamentary question No. 13282 of this year that funding for the early intervention service had decreased from $41 million in 2010-11 to $40 million in 2014-15?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I do not have to hand the specific written parliamentary question. The distinction I am drawing to the attention of the member and the House is between expenditure and funding. So although the amount went down by $2 million the funding into the service did not change. Secretarial shared support services became shared across the ministry and that explains the difference between those two numbers.Chris Hipkins: How many eligible children did not receive an early intervention service within 90 days of referral last year?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I do not have that operational detail to hand—Dr David Clark: Oh!Hon HEKIA PARATA: I do not have that operational detail to hand but certainly I can get that for the member. What I can tell you is that 11500 was the target for our service and we exceeded that by 2818.Chris Hipkins: How many children were on a waiting list for early intervention services over the last year for more than 6 months?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Again I cannot provide that level of operational detail. What I can repeat is that 11500 were targeted for services. We exceeded that by 2818.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek some guidance from you as to what recourse a member can have when they put down a relatively specific primary question indicating the direction of supplementary questions and ask very specific supplementary questions that they do not get answers to?Mr SPEAKER: The recourse is to try again another day I guess or use more supplementary questions now or to put it down specifically in the form of written questions. Those are the three options. My duty here is to judge whether the questions have been addressed. When a Minister says they do not have that information at hand then the question has been addressed. I think the member actually knows that point.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a further point of order. In cases where Ministers have not prepared that information and do not have that information to hand—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Chris Hipkins: We have only a limited number of supplementary questions each day. Will members get additional supplementary questions if Ministers do not prepare and do not answer the questions?Hon Simon Bridges: Point of order.Mr SPEAKER: No I do not need assistance. The answer to your question is probably no.Chris Hipkins: Did the Ministry of Education fail to provide early intervention support for over 6000 children within the 90 days required in 2014 and does she think that this is acceptable?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I cannot speak to that specific detail but what I can tell you is that it is not acceptable. That is why we have been undertaking a special education review up and down the country this year. We have met with extraordinary numbers of parents and providers to understand what the challenges are so that we can improve the support. We do that however in the context of this Government having raised the funding into special education by 26 percent. It now stands at $530 billion.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek some further guidance from you as to what Opposition members can do when a Minister says that they cannot answer a question and then goes on to provide a short speech on a whole range of other issues.Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member is now starting to trifle with me on this matter. I have said on many occasions in the House that I will judge the length of answers. Often I think it has been answered very quickly and the additional information is simply superfluous. Sometimes I judge that the information may be of value to members.Catherine Delahunty: What is her response to the 89 percent of early childhood council centres surveyed in October this year that said they had not received education support worker services for children with dyslexia dyspraxia and autism for the amount of time that they required them?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well first of all it was 80 percent which amounted to 100 services out of 5230. My answer is the same as to the previous question. We are concerned about some of the difficulties being experienced in the special education system and that is why we are reviewing it. I welcome the select committee report that the member is referencing.Catherine Delahunty: Will she commit more funding for early intervention services so that the delayed development of children with learning differences does not create more costs for the education health and justice systems and children are not struggling under the label of failure?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We are finding in the review that too much of the provision for special education is siloed into specific programmes. So the early intervention programme is one of a range of support services that are provided for early childhood education provision and we are looking at how we can relax the boundaries between those services so that we can help more kids without tripping over these programme parameters.Catherine Delahunty: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Thank you Minister; that is very helpful. But I just did ask whether the Minister would commit more funding.Mr SPEAKER: I wish the question had been as simple as that. We will allow you on this occasion to ask an additional supplementary question. Make it as a simple as that and then we can assist with an answer. Catherine Delahunty—an additional supplementary question.Catherine Delahunty: Will the Minister commit more funding given the increasing numbers of children—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No this is where we get into trouble. I am trying to help the member. If the member just rises and asks whether there will be increased funding—but when she starts to add more and more it gives the Minister every avenue to answer the other parts of the question. I am trying to help the member. I am giving her extra assistance here; I am being very generous on a Thursday. It is effectively an extra supplementary question. I invite her to ask it.Catherine Delahunty: Will the Minister commit more funding?Mr SPEAKER: To?Catherine Delahunty: To early intervention services so that our kids get their—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is all we need.Hon HEKIA PARATA: There is already more funding available to that group of children. They are just not all called early intervention services. There is an early hearing service there are services for speech therapy there are services for different disabilities and we are trying to bring all of those together into a wraparound service rather than siloing them into one programme.Hon David Cunliffe: Ashamed!Hon HEKIA PARATA: I am not ashamed actually—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has now been addressed.