Over the past five years, we've seen significant increases both in education spending and in the number of public servants supporting the portfolio. Our committee has scrutinised these trends and asked about the causes of and outcomes from these increases. We've heard there are a number of causes of the increased spending, including more learners in the early childhood and tertiary sectors and overall demographic changes. We've also heard that the additional people hired by the Ministry of Education are front-line staff, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists; that the increase in staff is causing observable benefits, such as decreased wait times for the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme. 