NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT FOR
LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS SCHOOL COMMUNITIES

BILATERAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND
NEW SOUTH WALES

Purpose

1.	This agreement sets out the role and responsibilities of the State of New South Wales (‘New South Wales’) and the Commonwealth of Australia (‘Commonwealth’) in relation to the National Partnership on Low Socio-economic Status School Communities (‘the Partnership’), signed on 29 November 2008.

2.	New South Wales remains firmly committed to working with the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions to achieve the goals expressed in the National Education Agreement, to improve the educational outcomes of our students to ensure the continued prosperity and progress of Australia and to encourage young people to pursue productive, fulfilling lives. 

3.	New South Wales enters this Partnership in the spirit of cooperation and commitment to work towards achieving improvement in high-level outcomes for schooling agreed by the Council of Australian Governments and set out in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.

4.	This Agreement outlines New South Wales’ financial, monitoring, reporting and auditing commitments regarding the National Partnership on Low Socio-economic Status School Communities. 

5.	This Agreement extends to those schools on the Low Socio-economic Status School Communities Reform Extension Initiative modified two-year program.

KEY REFORM AREAS AND INDICATIVE ACTIONS

6.	Detailed information concerning the key reform areas and associated indicative actions is located in New South Wales’ Implementation Plan.

7.	The Commonwealth and New South Wales agree the State Implementation Plan to be a ‘living’ document, subject to periodic review as agreed by both Parties.

BUDGET

Facilitation payments
8.	Commonwealth facilitation payments and State co-investments to be made in support of the Low Socio-economic Status School Communities National Partnership reforms in New South Wales are agreed as follows:

	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	
Funding	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	($m)	
Australian Government	4.45	60.1	81.1	148.3	143.9	88.2	67.2	
State Co-investment	4.45	60.1	81.1	148.3	143.9	88.2	67.2	
Total Facilitation Budget	8.9	120.2	162.2	296.6	287.8	176.4	134.4	

Facilitation Payment Milestones
Due date	Milestone	Facilitation Payment	
July 2009	Signing of bilateral agreement and State Implementation Plans.	$4.45m
(full payment July 2009)	
January 2010 	Acceptance of NSW Final Implementation Plan.

2009 and 2010 cohorts have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scans
o	revised/developed school plans.
	$45.075m
(75% payment 2009/10) 	
April 2010	State annual report for 2009.

2010 cohort schools have: 
o	published their school plan on the schools website by the end of Term 1.
	$15.025m
(25% payment 2009/10)	
October 2010 	State progress report (January – June 2010.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan for 2011. 	$60.825m
(75% payment 2010/11)	
April 2011	State annual report for 2010.

All schools that commenced in 2010 have:
o	implemented strategies to improve the availability of high quality teaching
o	undertaken professional development on data analysis with a focus on improving student outcomes.

All new and continuing schools have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scan for 2011 including consultation with community partners
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2011
o	published their 2011 school plan on the school’s website by the end of Term 1.
	$20.275m 
(25% payment 2010/11)	
October 2011	State progress report (January – June 2011)

All continuing schools have:
o	completed an Annual School Report which includes National Partnership activity for the previous year.

Reform Extension schools have:
o	employed a Highly Accomplished Teacher.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan for 2012. 
	$111.225m 
(75% payment 2011/12)	
April 2012	State annual report for 2011.

All schools that commenced in 2011 have:
o	implemented strategies to improve the availability of high quality teaching
o	undertaken professional development on data analysis with a focus on improving student outcomes.

All new and continuing schools have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scan for 2012 including consultation with community partners
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2012
o	published their 2012 school plan on the school’s website by the end of Term 1.	$37.075m 
(25% payment 2011/12)	
October 2012	State progress report (January – June 2012).

All continuing schools have:
o	completed an Annual School Report which includes National Partnership activity for the previous year.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan for 2013. 
	$107.925m 
(75% payment 2012/13)	
April 2013	State annual report for 2012.

All schools that commenced in 2012 have:
o	implemented strategies to improve the availability of high quality teaching
o	undertaken professional development on data analysis with a focus on improving student outcomes.

All continuing schools have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scan for 2013 including consultation with community partners
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2013
o	published their 2013 school plan on the school’s website by the end of Term 1.
	$35.975m 
(25% payment 2012/13)	
October 2013	State progress report (January – June 2013).

All continuing schools have:
o	completed an Annual School Report which includes National Partnership activity for the previous year.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan for 2014.
	$66.15m 
(75% payment 2013/14)	
April 2014	State annual report for 2013.

All continuing schools have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scan for 2014 including consultation with community partners
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2014
o	published their 2014 school plan on the school’s website by the end of Term 1.
	$22.05m 
(25% payment 2013/14)	
October 2014	State progress report (January – -June 2014).
All schools have:
o	completed an Annual School Report which includes National Partnership activity for the previous year.

NSW has revised its Implementation Plan for 2015. 
	$50.4m 
(75% payment for 2014/15)	
April 2015	State annual report for 2014.

All continuing schools have:
o	completed a comprehensive situational analysis/environmental scan for 2015 including consultation with community partners
o	revised and submitted a school plan for 2015
o	published their 2015 school plan on the school’s website by the end of Term 1.
	$16.8m 
(25% payment for 2014/15)	

NON-GOVERNMENT SECTOR PARTICIPATION

9.	In making this Agreement, the Catholic systemic sector was represented by the Catholic Education Commission NSW and independent schools were represented by the Association of Independent Schools NSW. 

10.	The ongoing participation, reporting, monitoring and auditing responsibilities of Catholic systemic schools in this Partnership will be managed by the Catholic Education Commission NSW.

11.	The ongoing participation, reporting, monitoring and auditing responsibilities of independent schools in this Partnership will be managed by the Association of Independent Schools NSW.

12.	Commonwealth funding for New South Wales schools will be received by the NSW Treasury on behalf of the State of New South Wales. Facilitation funds will then be disbursed to the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET). NSW DET will, in turn, distribute agreed funding allocations as follows:
o	To the Catholic Education Commission NSW for distribution to Catholic systemic schools;
o	To the Association of Independent Schools NSW for distribution to independent schools; and
o	To government schools (i.e. from NSW Department of Education and Training’s allocation of total facilitation funding).

13.	Further detail regarding payment distribution and information regarding non-government sector co-investment is attached in the Implementation Plan. 

INDICATIVE ACTIONS AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

14.	Performance measures for the State’s involvement in this Partnership are detailed in the Implementation Plan.

MONITORING AND REPORTING ARRANGEMENTS

15.	New South Wales will monitor and report on the progress made in this National Partnership as agreed with the Commonwealth and detailed in the Implementation Plan. 

16.	New South Wales agrees to provide reports to the Commonwealth detailing progress against the agreed reform milestones and timelines, as set out in the Implementation Plan. New South Wales acknowledges that summaries of the state reports will be published. 

17.	NSW agrees that the Second Report in April 2011 will include the following:

o	A statistical overview and discussion of the options selected by schools from the Reform Menu 
o	Details of cohorts of students targeted in schools and the strategies being implemented to assist them
o	The breakdown of funding and activities attributed to each of the six Reform Options
o	Data for Literacy and Numeracy performance in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 (NAPLAN) 
o	Number of quality teaching positions established in Low SES School Communities National Partnership schools
o	Detail on community engagement activities, including university partnerships and Indigenous community engagement
o	Case studies from individual schools illustrating a range of scenarios operating within the Partnership.

18.	New South Wales also agrees to share information of best practice arrangements and successful reform interventions with other States and Territories through the dissemination of National Partnership annual reports. New South Wales will periodically review the effectiveness of the reforms being undertaken in this Partnership, and will make these results available to States and Territories. For more detail on evaluation, refer to the Implementation Plan. 

19.	Monitoring and reporting arrangements will reflect the requirements of Schedule C to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations.

20.	New South Wales notes that where agreed Performance Indicators under the NP agreement contribute to the objectives and outcomes of the National Education Agreement, the COAG Reform Council will assess these performance indicators in the context of its analysis and report on the National Education Agreement and its subsidiary NP agreements.

21.	New South Wales agrees that where individual school data are provided and the NP agreements do not provide for that level of analysis to be published, standard privacy protocols should prevail.

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

22.	The Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales will acknowledge the Bilateral Agreement as a joint Commonwealth and State initiative in all publications, promotional and advertising materials, public announcements, activities or any products, processes or inventions developed as a result of the implementation of the Bilateral Agreement.

AUDIT ARRANGEMENTS

23.	During the term of this Agreement, New South Wales will, upon 7 days’ notice from the Commonwealth during normal business hours or as otherwise agreed, permit and provide persons ("Auditors") nominated by New South Wales supervised access to relevant information to verify compliance with the obligations under this Agreement. The Commonwealth is not entitled to use this right of access for purposes that are not related to this Agreement. 

GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS

24.	This National Partnership and its associated implementation, reporting, accountability and evaluation requirements will be monitored by a cross-sectoral steering committee which will provide advice to the NSW Minister for Education and Training on issues requiring action.

The Parties have executed this agreement as follows:

Signed for and on behalf of the
Commonwealth of Australia by

……………………………………….
The Hon. Peter Garrett AM MP
Minister for School Education 

Date

Signed for and on behalf of the
State of New South Wales by

……………………………………………	
The Hon. Verity Firth MP
Minister for Education and Training

Date