Consultative Arrangements

Consultative Committee Arrangements

Under the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022, Before 1 September each year, schools are required to report to the Department on whether consultation arrangements have been agreed at the school level.

The consultative arrangements must allow employees to be represented for consultation purposes and include input from the union sub-branch, if one exists at the school.

As included in the details of the Microsoft Form, the consultative arrangements will include:

• the consultative structure
• the operational procedures including the chair, and schedule of meetings;
• the arrangements to enable committee members (where the structure involves a committee) the opportunity and time to canvass views in their school;
• time release for one union nominee to enable consultation with the union sub-branch, which must be a minimum time release of 30 hours commencing term 4 for the following 12 months (two nominees in the VGSA 2026);
• the treatment of confidential material as it relates to employees of the school, and
• the method of communicating decisions to staff

Thank you to the staff who gave feedback on the Jackson School consultative arrangements for 2026/27. These are as follows:

Structure

• Principal
• Principal Representative (2 Positions with 3 Positions in the VGSA 2026)
• Teacher Representative (1 Position)
• ES Representative (1 Position)
• AEU Sub Branch Teacher Representative (1 Position)
• AEU Sub Branch ES Representative (1 Position)

The principal must use the consultation arrangements when making decisions about matters related to long-term planning for the following school year (based on the indicative release of the SRP based on 2026 enrolments minus school leavers without Disability Inclusion funding).

Under the Department's Policy, the principal has ultimate administrative and operational responsibility for school-level decisions, provided these decisions are made consistent with the consultative provisions of clause 12 of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 (or VGSA 2026). 'Consultation is not perfunctory advice on what is about to happen. Consultation is providing the individual, or other relevant persons, with a bona fide opportunity to influence the decision maker. Consultation is not joint decision-making, nor is it a negative or frustrating barrier to management's prerogative to make decisions. Consultation helps inform the decision-making process, particularly when it may affect individuals' employment prospects.

Consultative Representative Voting

Thank you to everyone who nominated themselves or a colleague for the Teacher and ES Consultative Committee representative positions. Because nominees overlapped between the staff and union elections (Nikki and Lorenda), and a student breached a staff device, we have decided to hold the 2026/27 Consultative Committee vote again in Week 1 of Term 4. This means that their nominations are no longer included in the staff voting. The nominees for staff voting are:

• Teacher: Sue R and Deb M
• ES: Jodie J and Karen H

There were also a number of Teachers and ES who voted for the wrong classification of staff. For this reason, we will hold the voting in person to ensure anonymity during the voting process. 

Thank you for your participation in helping to shape the 2026/27 consultative committee.