The State Government has started rolling out an election promise to put more than 150 health staff in state schools.

About 20 school health nurses and two speech pathologists started work last week.

The remaining staff will be recruited over the next four years.

Before the March election the government promised $57 million over four years to fund the extra staff, which will include 45 full time workers in regional WA.

The Health Minister, Kim Hames says that commitment has now been revised to $38 million but the extra staff will still be recruited.

“We had a budget submission based on what we’d estimated was the total cost and we found the cost wasn’t as much as we anticipated it would be, so we’re committed to the staffing numbers, the funding is what follows.”