AQW 4942/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 19/10/2022
Answered On Date: 26/10/2022
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education (i) why some substitute teachers have not received payment in October 2022 for work completed in September 2022; and (ii) what steps she is taking to address this situation.

Answer:

I would refer the member to my answer to AQW 4860/22-27 submitted on 21 October, which set out the reasons why some supply teachers did not receive timely payment for some or all of their salary. It also provided the position in respect of my direction for interim emergency payments to be processed for all affected teachers.

In respect of addressing outstanding issues with the new NISTR system, work continues to make further improvements and changes to system logic based on the payment difficulties encountered and on other user feedback. This includes block bookings for individual recurrent days of the week, improvements to the sign-off process and critically, the generation of an automated payroll file. Planned additional features will continue to be added throughout the developmental phase.