The National Student Wellbeing Program (NSWP) supports schools to promote the wellbeing of their students.

All schools were able to apply to participate in this program. This application process is now closed. Successful schools have been notified, and are now funded to run this program between 2024 and 2027.

About the program

The NSWP is delivered by a Pastoral Care Worker (PCW) or Student Wellbeing Support Officer (SWSO). It's not a religious program and does not provide religious instruction or religious counselling to students.

The program:

• provides supports that focus on the social and emotional wellbeing of students
• complements the existing student wellbeing programs and services offered by schools.

The NSWP in South Australian schools

SA government schools can refer to the 'National School Wellbeing Program procedure for schools' for detailed program information and processes. This procedure is currently being updated and will be available shortly. Contact the NSWP team if you have any questions.

Non-government schools can contact their relevant association to find out more about the funding and application process.

Engaging or appointing a PCW or SWSO

Schools in the NSWP can choose either to:

• engage a PCW or SWSO from a service provider that has a contract with the department
• appoint a SWSO from their existing staff or employ a new staff member.

Using an external service provider

Government schools can choose one of the approved service providers to deliver their NSWP services.

Service providers must work with school leaders to recruit a PCW or a SWSO that suits the needs of the school community.

Schools should consider that each provider might have different:

• fee structures
• recruitment processes
• ways to deliver the program.

Service providers are considered the employers and must make sure employee requirements are met.

Appointing a SWSO directly with the school

Schools have the option to appoint their own SWSO (staff login required).

This could be a new position or extension of hours for someone already in a wellbeing support position.

Schools that appoint their own SWSO are considered the employers, and must make sure employee requirements are met.

Roles and responsibilities

PCWs and SWSOs work under the supervision and guidance of the school’s trained wellbeing staff at all times to support individual or groups of students.

PCWs and SWSOs from an external service provider are not employed by schools, governing councils or the department. However, schools have the responsibility to provide day-to-day supervision, advice and management.

PCWs and SWSOs must

The role and responsibilities of PCWs and SWSOs could include whole-school, group or one-on-one services. They will work under supervision to:

• support student attendance, engagement and mental health
• support students in difficult or challenging situations such as during times of grief
• provide students with referrals to specialist services when required
• provide pastoral care and guidance to students
• support physical, emotional, social development and wellbeing of all students
• support an environment of cooperation and respecting a diversity of cultures and traditions
• coordinate volunteering activities and support
• coordinate and support breakfast programs
• provide lunch time activities
• support excursions and incursions
• provide and support parent and carer workshops.

PCWs or SWSOs must not

PCWs or SWSOs must not:

• proselytise, evangelise or advocate for a particular religious view or belief
• enter compromising situations where confidentiality may be sought by the student
• behave in a way that impacts the delivery of their services under the program
• perform professional or other services that they are not qualified for
• visit students’ homes to work with students and their families
• conduct religious services or ceremonies or lead in religious observances
• provide religious instruction or religious counselling to students
• promote external events run by religious organisations – for example, camps, excursions, youth conferences, guest speaker presentations
• become involved in parenting disputes, family law matters or other legal proceedings
• provide counselling services to students.

Faith and professional boundaries

The NSWP is not a religious program and does not provide religious instruction or religious counselling to students.

• PCWs can be of any faith.
• SWSOs can be of any faith, or no faith.

Both are prohibited from proselytising under the project agreement (PDF 9.4KB). (Proselytising is defined as trying 'to persuade someone to share your beliefs, especially religious or political beliefs' – Collins Dictionary).

Before your PCW or SWSO can start

Before a PCW or SWSO can start at a school, they must meet employee qualification, training and screening requirements.

Employers are responsible for keeping evidence and reporting on staff that meet requirements for:

• Code of Conduct (if required)
• minimum qualification check
• application to transition to minimum qualification requirements (if required)
• RRHAN-EC training
• working with children check
• responding to and preventing bullying and cyberbullying as soon as is practical – this training is provided by the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

Minimum qualifications

Employers are responsible for keeping evidence and reporting on PCWs or SWSOs, making sure that they meet minimum qualifications equal to or higher than a Certificate IV. This qualification must include competencies in:

• mental health and making appropriate referrals
• providing pastoral care, working with youth, or both.

To see if a PCW or SWSO has the minimum qualifications, you must do a skills mapping process.

Contact the NSWP team for a copy of the department’s minimum qualification mapping tool.

Employing someone who doesn't yet have the minimum qualifications

It can be difficult to recruit suitably qualified PCWs or SWSOs in all areas, especially remote and regional areas.

Employers can apply for approval to employ a PCW or SWSO who doesn't have the minimum qualifications yet. Applications are assessed by a cross-sector panel.

To apply, submit an application to transition to minimum qualification requirements.

This process is by exception only. The candidate cannot start until you hear from us.

Changing or removing a PCW or SWSO

Employers can change PCWs or SWSOs at any time.

The employer must remove a PCW or SWSO immediately from the NSWP funded school if:

• they get a request from the school leader or the department
• the PCW or SWSO no longer meets the needs of the school community.

They must then try to provide a suitable replacement.

Notifying the department of changes

Employers must submit a NSWP notification form each time a PCW or SWSO:

• starts working at a school
• stops working at a school.

This form must be submitted within 5 business days of the change.

Gaps in service

Changes and trouble recruiting PCWs and SWSOs can impact on service delivery at the school. This can create gaps in service.

Employers include the start and end date of any gaps in service as part of their quarterly reporting to the department.

The department may allow the reallocation of funding between NSWP funded schools. Service providers must contact the NSWP team to discuss a reallocation.

If the gap in service means service providers have extra funding, you can only use it:

• for the school where the funding was allocated
• to increase pastoral care service hours for a period of time
• to employ more than 1 PCW or SWSO for the school
• to fund an existing PCW or SWSO at the school who is not funded through the NSWP.

Changing service providers

Schools that use PCW or SWSOs from a service provider can change any time if they are not meeting the needs of the school community.

The schools and service provider must negotiate a service end date. The department will manage the return of any unspent funds with the service provider within 30 days.

The service provider will need to:

• plan a handover process – this can include an exit interview with the PCW or SWSO
• provide a final financial acquittal report to the department – it should show expenditure and service details up to the service agreement end date
• provide a summary of PCW or SWSO case notes to the school – it should explain student interventions and services received.

Schools that choose to leave the NSWP

Schools that stop participating in the NSWP must:

• contact the NSWP team   or their service provider (if using)
• provide a final financial acquittal report to the department – it should show expenditure and service details up to the date of the school exiting the program.
• transfer unused NSWP funding back to the department.

Funding allocation and use

The NSWP funding allocation is determined by the department. It is paid directly to service providers and schools quarterly.

There was an increase in applications from schools to be part of the NSWP in 2024 to 2027. To meet this demand all schools who applied for 2024 to 2027 have received funding.

The department has provided further state government funding in addition to Federal Government support to cover the costs associated with this increased demand.

To enable the participation of all schools that applied, the Minister provided the following options to deliver a $20,280 service, required to deliver a minimum of 300 hours of service per year. All schools will be allocated $16,000 in metropolitan areas or $19,200 in remote areas. For schools that choose to internally recruit a SWSO, this funding must be used for the salary of the worker.

Schools who select to employ their own worker will receive the funding directly each quarter through the School Resource Entitlement Statement (RES). These schools are required to pay for the administrative costs associated with the NSWP service over and above the funding provided for the SWSO salary.

Schools who select to use a service provider are required to contribute $4,280 in metropolitan areas and $5,136 in remote areas each year to cover the cost to providers for the provision of this service. This will be recovered through the School Resource Entitlement Statement (RES) each quarter.

How service providers can use funds

Schools should negotiate and plan with their service provider (if using a provider) about how the service will be delivered over the course of the year.

Service providers are able to use up to 20% of total NSWP funding per school for administration costs. This includes:

• general administration costs
• support or administration staff costs
• training and personal development costs for the PCW or SWSO
• for service providers  – reasonable travel for delivering NSWP services to schools, for example fuel, fares, vehicle registration and maintenance.

At least 80% of the total NSWP funding per school must be used to pay PCW or SWSOs salaries or wages and superannuation.

Employers must try to provide the minimum hours of service delivery, capped at the total amount of NSWP funding to the assigned school.

Services above funding provided by the NSWP

If a school wants services above the minimum hours and funding provided by the NSWP, they can use their:

• Resource Entitlement Statement (RES)
• cash reserves (SASIF).

Unacceptable use of funding

Employers cannot use NSWP funding to pay for goods and services that are inconsistent with the purpose of the program. This includes:

• PCW or SWSO annual leave
• service provider supervisor or line manager hours
• orientation training hours for rejected transition to minimum qualification candidates
• the purchase of religious education or religious training packages and the purchase of goods related to these activities
• the purchase of capital items, assets or resources including capital works, vehicles, computers and text books
• any existing programs or supports that are already funded by alternate funding sources
• provision of services to other unfunded schools.

If a candidate for transition to minimum qualifications has their application declined, you cannot use the funding to pay for their orientation training hours.

Service providers redirecting funding

Service providers must not reallocate funds between funded schools without approval from the department. This means you can’t transfer unspent funds from one school to another.

Unspent funds

If you have unspent funds from you must submit a proposal to the department for how you will use these funds. The proposal must include:

• school name
• how the underspend happened
• steps taken to minimise the underspend
• details of the proposed school where the funds could be redirected
• evidence of why the proposed school needs extra funding
• details of how you will use the funding.

Send your proposal to the National Student Wellbeing Program team. We’ll let you know the outcome by email.

Reporting and record keeping

Employers must comply with reporting and record keeping requirements for the NSWP service delivery.

Reporting requirements

Employers must:

• complete biannual formal reviews by the school of the PCWs who currently provide NSWP services – reviews must be signed off by:
  • a school representative
  • a service provider representative
• complete quarterly reporting about their PCWs or SWSOs – this includes minimum qualifications and mandatory training requirements
• report PCW and SWSO employment change notifications within 5 days.
• complete annual financial acquittal
• offer extra information to the department, when requested, to help monitor and evaluate the NSWP.

Record keeping requirements

Employers must:

• create and maintain comprehensive and accurate records of activities and decisions made
• comply with Premier and Cabinet Circular PC012 Information Privacy Principles (IPPS) Instruction that regulates the way South Australian Public Sector agencies and contracted service providers collect, use, store and disclose personal information – this must be balanced with legally permissible information sharing to promote the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
• inform the department of any significant incidences occurring during or related to the provision of NSWP services at a school.

Inspections and reviews of service performance

Employers must also comply with the department’s inspection requirements.

This includes:

• annual visits to the school or service provider’s business
• desktop monitoring of NSWP service delivery.

The department can choose to review, monitor, investigate or audit the performance of the PCW or the service provider at any time.

Confidentiality and student records

PCWs or SWSOs must:

• document formal conversations that happen during their delivery of NSWP services – this could be with students, staff or community members
• document services delivered.

Only people who have authority and reason can access information and records of children and young people.

If preferred, principals may discuss with the service provider to clarify information sharing guidelines, including what can and cannot be recorded in school systems.

Service providers own the records they create. This could be via manual files or electronic records management, potentially stored externally on their own systems.

If a PCW or SWSO is concerned about a student, group of students, or the conduct of an adult at the school, they must speak with the school leader or wellbeing staff and appropriately share information.

Parental consent

Parents and carers can decide if they want their children to have contact with the NSWP and pastoral care or wellbeing support services at school.

Schools must get parental consent. This could be part of the beginning of year student information update or as a standalone consent process.

Schools can add the following statement to the consent form:

‘Where I [parent/legal guardian] give consent to my child participating in NSWP and pastoral care or wellbeing support services at school, I acknowledge that records of services provided are created, maintained and securely stored by the Pastoral Care Worker or Student Wellbeing Support Officer and their employer (an external service provider or the school).’

Feedback and complaints

We welcome feedback about the program including good news stories.

Employers must have a documented formal complaints management process for all complaints lodged. They must notify the department   and affected schools within 2 business days about complaints or concerns. This applies to any that:

• impact the delivery of NSWP services in schools
• are about the PCW or SWSO.

A funded site leader or the department can:

• arrange an investigation of a complaint or incident
• investigate the actions of a PCW or SWSO and the delivery of NSWP services.

The complaints management process for the NSWP in South Australian government schools is consistent with the department's complaints management process.

Background to the National Student Wellbeing Program

The Australian Government provides $7.59 million each year to South Australian government, independent and Catholic schools for the NSWP through the project agreement (PDF).

Each state is required to form a Cross Sector Panel to make sure the terms of the project agreement are met.

The terms of reference (PDF 561 KB) defines the purpose and structure of the panel.