Schools%20HR%20Update

1
HR Services for Schools

• Schools HR Update
• 4th February 2015

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AGENDA

• Disqualification by Association 
• Teachers Performance Related Pay Progression and
  Appeals
• HR Advisory Team updates
• Dignity at work, Grievance Policy future plan
• Employment law update including recent case law
  and LGA updates
• Team Changes
• Key dates Managing Investigations training,
  overview, who should go
• Health Safety update
• Shared Parental Leave
• Pension Auto Enrolment notification
• Teachers Pension Scheme
• Payroll update - Sick Pay, calculation and
  entitlement
• Future dates Update Workshop

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HR Services for Schools

• Disqualification by Association 
• February 2015

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Childcare Disqualification Requirements -
Additional advice

• LSCB set out Additional advice on their Guidance
  for Schools regarding the Childcare
  Disqualification Requirements in a document of
  8th January 2015
• This is the result of clarification from DfE
• This document is posted on the HR pages of SLN
• You are strongly advised to read it if you have
  not already done so

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HR Services for Schools

• Teachers Performance Related Pay Progression and
  Appeals
• February 2015

6
School Teachers Pay Progression September 2014 -
processes

• By now the decision should have been given to
  each teacher and they should have been given
  their Teachers Annual Pay Statement (by 31st
  October!)
• If dissatisfied they had the right to appeal to
  Pay Appeals Committee
• Use of Capability process for those not
  progressed?
• Performance Targets for 2014/15 all set?

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School Teachers Pay Progression September 2014
Pay Appeals

• Pay Appeals - how was it for you?

8
HR Services for Schools

• HR Advisory Team update  
• February 2015

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Statutory adoption pay and leave

• Children and Families Act 2014 brings statutory
  adoption pay into line with statutory maternity
  pay by setting it at 90 of average weekly
  earnings for the first six weeks
• 26 week qualifying period for adoption pay and
  leave removed (in line with maternity leave and
  pay)
• Surrogate parents eligible for adoption leave -
  available to employees who are, or expect to be,
  the parents of a child under a parental order,
  where the childs expected week of birth begins
  on or after 5th April 2015
• The Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) (No
  2) Regulations 2014 also introduce a new right
  for parents who are prospective adopters to take
  adoption leave

10
Parental Leave

• Children and Families Act 2014 - Childs age
  limit for parental leave rises to 18 from 5th
  April 2015
• Different from shared parental leave, this is
  unpaid leave to care for a child
• Parents with sufficient qualifying service can
  have up to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave up to
  the childs 18th birthday

11
Obesity as a Disability

• The European Court of Justice in 2014 confirmed
  for UK employers that obesity can constitute a
  disability
• Obesity unlikely to automatically be considered a
  disability in itself
• Morbid obesity may be a disability if the
  individuals weight hinders the full and
  effective participation of the person concerned
  in professional life on an equal basis with other
  workers
• Associated conditions may be a disability
• Duty to make reasonable adjustments

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Key Case Law (1) Walker v Sita Information
Networking Computing Ltd

• The EAT held that an obese employee who genuinely
  suffered from multiple symptoms, that were not
  explained by either a pathological process or any
  significant physical changes, was disabled
• Focus is on the effect of the impairment, not its
  cause
• An obese employee is more likely to suffer an
  impairment which would constitute disability

13
Key Case Law (2)Griffiths v Secretary of State
for Work and Pensions (Court of Appeal)

• The Court of Appeal is hearing an appeal in this
  case about how employers should treat absence
  triggers in an attendance policy
• The EAT held that an employers duty to make
  reasonable adjustments for a disabled person does
  not include disregarding the absence triggers in
  its attendance policy

14
Future Plan for the Dignity at Work and Grievance
Policys

• We are currently reviewing these Borough policies
  with a view to making the processes the same
  for example we are looking at reducing the number
  of appeal stages as currently there are four in
  the Grievance policy
• We appreciate that there can be confusion over
  which policy to use at times
• Within the Borough we will combine the two
  policies to provide one clear process in dealing
  with the matter that has been raised
• The revised policy will be adapted for Community
  schools to use, and for others to adopt if they
  wish

15
Internal Workplace Mediation Scheme

• We are now able to offer an Internal Workplace
  Mediation Scheme to schools
• Mediation is a confidential and voluntary process
  where a third party helps two or more people in
  dispute to reach an agreement
• The benefits of using mediation are that it can
  be used, where appropriate, instead of going
  through a more formal route - which saves time
  and also encourages staff to take ownership of
  the situation and an agreed resolution
• Managers should still manage their team and any
  conflicts that may arise, supporting staff to
  discuss their problems and resolve a way forward.
  If the conflict still remains afterwards or has
  increased then mediation may be appropriate at
  this time. It will also support the revised
  Dignity at Work/Grievance Policy

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Advisory Team Changes

• Nikki Anderson is currently on maternity leave
  after giving birth to her baby girl (Freya),
  mother and baby are doing well
• Melanie Bailey is due to go on maternity leave
  26th February
• This position will be filled temporarily to cover
  the maternity leave

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Advisory Team

• Liz Farrell is the Advisory Services Team Manager
• HR Advisors are
• Sue Martin
• Tracy Cline
• Vanessa Norton
• Natalie Valentine
• Claire Sims
• Lorna Becker is the HR Assistant
• All the HR Advisors provide support and guidance
  for schools with regards to sickness, dignity at
  work, grievance, disciplinary and capability
• Some of you have already met Shaun Jarvis, he is
  the Assistant Health Safety Officer working
  alongside Richard Potticary

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HR Training - Managing Investigations

• Twilight session - 4th March 3.45 to 6.45 pm OR
• Afternoon session - 12th March 1 to 4 pm
• This course is aimed at the Senior Leadership
  Team and any Governors who may be asked to
  undertake an investigation and is designed to
  give you the necessary tools and confidence to
  undertake investigations under the Disciplinary,
  Grievance and Dignity at Work Policies
• Please alert your SLT and relevant Governors (and
  consider if this would be of benefit to you) and
  book through HR pages of SLN by 23rd Feb

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HR Services for Schools

• Health and Safety update
• February 2015

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HS Classroom Checklist
Health and Safety in a school is about taking a
sensible and proportionate approach to ensure
that the premises provide a healthy and safe
place for all who use them.
This checklist will help users quickly identify
any areas of concern or risks to those using or
working in the classroom. Using it is not
mandatory but doing so will give users and
employers confidence that sensible precautions
are in place.
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Who is this checklist for?
It provides Teaching and Support Staff with a
list of health and safety issues to consider in
an ordinary classroom setting in any school.
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How should it be used?
The checklist is designed to save staff time
simplifying many of the checks and paperwork
approaches that can be seen as red tape when
applied to individual classrooms.
This checklist is to complement the steps the
school already takes to manage risks from topics
such as fire, legionella, asbestos etc.
School-wide approaches to assessing and managing
real risks should be in place so they do not need
to be reassessed in an ordinary classroom.
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What doesnt it cover?
This checklist doesnt cover drama and sports
facilities or specialist classrooms, including
laboratories, art, IT, design and technology
facilities. In these specific environments, where
more specialist equipment and/or substances are
in use, risk assessment and management
appropriate to the activities should be in
place. You can email shaunjarvis_at_southend.gov.uk
to obtain an electronic copy
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PEEPs
What is a PEEP?
Does your school discuss PEEPs within the written
Emergency Evacuation Plans or Fire Safety
policy?
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PEEPs
Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan Templates can
be found at the side of the room For electronic
version please email shaunjarvis_at_southend.gov.uk

These should be completed for anyone who requires
assistance with any aspect of emergency
evacuation.
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PEEPs
Once developed, the PEEP will describe the
pupils intended means of escape in the event of
emergency, including drills. The PEEP will
specify what type of assistance is agreed and how
it is to be maintained to ensure the pupils
continued safety and should include assistance
required from the point of raising the alarm to
passing through the final exit of the building.
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PEEPs

• Once completed copies of the form will need to be
  held in various places. All copies must be the
  most-up-to-date version of the plan so a
  co-ordinated and organised system is essential.
• Pupils Personal Records
• With the Head (Responsible Person for Fire
  Safety)
• By the Class Teacher
• With the Fire Log Book

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PEEPs
Looking through the Form
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HR Services for Schools

• Shared Parental Leave
•  
• February 2015

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Shared Parental Leave- Introduction

• New entitlement for employees who are parents (
  Birth or adoption) to take Shared Parental Leave
  (SPL) in the first year of their Childs life or
  in the first year after their Childs placement
  for adoption
• New regulation applies where the expected week of
  childbirth or placement begins on or after 5th
  April 2015

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Current right to leave for parents

• New Maternity rights
• Paid leave to attend antenatal appointments
• 52 weeks maternity leave
• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
• Paternity rights
• 2 weeks paternity leave
• Pay at flat rate (full pay week one, statutory
  week two)
• Potential additional leave if mother does not use
  up her entitlement THIS CEASES
• Adoption leave
• 52 weeks adoption leave
• Statutory adoption pay (SAP)
• Unpaid parental leave

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New rights

• Optional
• Will occur when the mother curtails her
  entitlement for maternity or adoption leave
• Remainder of leave can be shared with the other
  parent
• Up to 50 weeks SPL and 37 weeks of shared
  parental pay can be used

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New Regulations an overview

• Important to separate Shared Parental Leave
  (SPL) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP).
• Employee and their partner must meet the criteria
  for SPL
• Employee and their partner must meet the criteria
  for ShPP
• Employer relies on employee to provide the
  information, however we can ask for a copy of the
  birth certificate and the name and address of the
  partners employer
• Partner refers to -
• The Childs father
• Or the person who at the date of the child's
  birth is the Mothers spouse, civil partner or
  partner

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New Regulations an overview, slide 1 SPL

• Both parents must agree to the division of the
  leave
• Neither can take SPL without the other signing a
  consent form
• SPL can be taken at any time but must be within
  the period starting on the day the child is
  born/placement and ending the day before the
  childs 1st birthday /anniversary of placement

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New Regulations an overview, slide 2 SPL

• There is only one entitlement to SPL regardless
  of the number of children being born from the
  pregnancy/ adoption
• Minimum leave to be taken is one week
• Leave can be taken in one continuous period or
  several discontinuous periods
• Employees must give notices to inform their
  employer of their intention to end their
  maternity leave and when they intend to take SPL

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New Regulations an overview, slide 3 SPL

• Employees must give not less than 8 weeks notice
  before the start of the SPL
• Notice must be provided in writing
• Partner must do the same for their employer
• Requests for continuous periods of leave, must be
  agreed
• Employer receiving a request for periods of
  discontinuous leave, can either agree, propose
  alterative or refuse
• If refused the employee is entitled to take the
  total amount of leave requested in one continuous
  period

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New Regulations an overview, slide 4 SPL

• Employees can-
• Vary the start and end date of any period of
  leave
• Change from discontinuous leave to continuous
  leave and visa versa
• Vary the amount of leave requested or cancel
  leave
• Provided at least 8 weeks notice is given
• Employee is limited to serving 3 notices

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New Regulations an overview, slide 5 SPL

• Employees entitled to the same TCs
• Reasonable contact
• Up to 20 days work each Shared Parental leave
  in Touch (SPLIT)
• Redundancy protection to mirror that of maternity
  leave

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New Regulations an overview ShPP

• Employee and their partner must meet the criteria
  for ShPP
• The number of weeks of ShPP available to be
  shared between parents is 39 weeks less any weeks
  spent by the mother in receipt of SMP/SAP/
  Maternity Allowance (MA)
• ShPP will end once the total received by both
  parents (including weeks of SMP/SAP/MA) reaches
  39 weeks
• ShPP must be used before the childs first
  birthday/ anniversary of placement
• ShPP is the lower of-
• The prescribed rate ( currently 138.18)
• 90 of the normal weekly earnings of the person
  claiming ShPP
• Paid by the employer

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Shared Parental Leave where are we now?

• New policy drafted and will go out to
  consultation during February
• Once consultation completed new policy will be
  available on SLN
• In the interim if you or your employees have any
  questions or concerns please e-mail
  karenmelville_at_southend.gov.uk
• Alternatively further information can be found on
  www.acas.org.uk
• Full briefing will be given in next workshop in
  May

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HR Services for Schools

• Pension Auto Enrolment notification
•  February 2015

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Pensions Auto Enrolment - Quick Reminder!

• The change in law meant that every employer must
  automatically enrol workers into a workplace
  pension scheme if they
• are aged between 22 and State Pension age
• earn more than 10,000 a year
• work in the UK
• This is called automatic enrolment
• The change was mainly a communication exercise
  for Local Government as we already enrolled
  workers into a pension scheme as part of their
  TCs.
• This is called contractual enrolment

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Pensions Auto Enrolment - Quick Reminder!

• At the schools staging date we wrote to all
  employees about the pension scheme.
• For those not in the pension scheme on the
  staging date, who met the eligibility criteria,
  we informed them that we would defer their
  enrolment until Oct 2017. This was know as the
  transitional arrangements.
• We continue to monitor employees not in the
  pension scheme or part of the transitional
  arrangements. Those that reached the trigger for
  auto enrolment (and how have not opted out since
  the staging date) are enrolled into the relevant
  pension scheme. A letter is sent to the employee
  making them aware that they have been enrolled in
  the pension as part of pension auto enrolment.
• In addition we also write to ALL NEW employees to
  make them aware they have been contractually
  enrolled.

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Pensions Auto Enrolment - a slight change

• We will continue to monitor existing employees
  not in the pension scheme and if appropriate
  enrol them in the pension and write to them
• New starters as part of issuing the contract of
  employment, schools will be responsible for
  issuing a standard letter to the employee
  informing them they have been contractually
  enrolled from 1st March 2015

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HR Services for Schools

• Teachers Pension Scheme
•  
• February 2015

46
TPS Scheme changes

• Scheme changes from April 2015
• Annual Benefit Statements will include
  information for each individual teacher (see next
  slide)
• The letters will inform them whether the changes
  will affect them, explain more about what the
  changes mean and offer guidance on where to find
  out more
• The changes are complicated and we advise you to
  direct teachers to the TPS website if they have
  queries
• Well pick up the employers contributions as we
  do now - were improving our systems for this

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TPS Annual Benefit Statements

• Annual Benefit Statements will be distributed by
  TPS during February and March
• TPS ask that once youve received these please
  get them to your employees as soon as possible
• Please note that teachers wont receive a paper
  ABS if
• Theyre re-employed
• In their first two years of teaching
• Currently in mixed service
• Please ask these teachers who fall into one of
  these groups to contact TPS on 08456 066 166 or
  email tpmail_at_teacherspensions.co.uk if they and
  would like more information

48
TPS Personal emails

• TPS are saying that when a teacher first joins
  the Teachers Pension Scheme, theyd like to send
  them important information about the Scheme and
  what their options are
• TPSs preferred method of contacting members is
  via email, which they say can prove difficult
  with inaccurate or missing data
• TPS have asked that when were communicating with
  new employees it would be helpful if we could
  inform them TPS will be contacting them directly
  and for us to therefore ask the teacher to tell
  TPS their personal email addresses
• We expect that TPS will change their system in
  future so we have to ask for the personal email
  details to be entered on the PAY form!

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HR Services for Schools

• Payroll update
• Sick Pay - calculation and entitlement
• February 2015

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Sick Pay Entitlement - Local Government (1)N.B.
if employee is in a current sickness at their
anniversary date, entitlement does not increase
until that sickness has ended

•                
•    

Service Full Pay Half Pay
During 1st year of service 26 days Nil
But from 5 months to 1 year As above 52 days
During 2nd year 52 days 52 days
During 3rd year 104 days 104 days
During 4th 5th years 130 days 130 days
after 5 years 156 days 156 days
51
Sick Pay Entitlement - Local Government (2)

• Sickness for Local Government Staff is calculated
  on a rolling year and entitlement depends on
  length of service (complete years)
• For each day a member of staff is off sick, a day
  is deducted from their entitlement with the
  exception of Sundays.
• So if an employee is off sick for a complete
  week, then 6 days will be deducted from their
  entitlement regardless of how many days a week
  they work.
• It is important to record the dates correctly on
  the absence return so that entitlement is
  deducted correctly - the absence return should
  show the 1st day and last day of their absence.

52
Sick Pay Entitlement Teachers (1) N.B. if
employee is in a current sickness at their
anniversary date, entitlement does not increase
until that sickness has ended

•                
•    

Service Full Pay Half Pay
During 1st year of service 25 days Nil
But from 5 months to 1 year As above 50 days
During 2nd year 50 days 50 days
3rd year 75 days 75 days
after 3 years 100 days 100 days
53
Sick Pay Entitlement Teachers (2)

• Teachers sickness is not calculated on a rolling
  year, however any sickness days taken between the
  current sickness going back to 1st April will be
  taken off their entitlement
• Teachers receive a new entitlement on 1st April
  each year unless they are off sick 31st March,
  then their new entitlement will not be given
  until they have returned to work
• The new entitlement will be given on 1st April,
  regardless of the day they started
• For example a teacher starts 1.4.14, on 1.4.15
  they have completed
• 1 years service and will receive the
  appropriate entitlement. (50 days full pay and 50
  days half pay). Another teacher starts 31.3.15
  and on 1.4.15 they are also deemed to have
  completed 1 years service (even though it is only
  1 day) and they will also receive the appropriate
  entitlement. (50 days full pay and 50 days half
  pay).

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Sick Pay Entitlement Teachers (3)

• Teachers sickness days are deducted ONLY if they
  are a school working day.
• Holidays and weekends are NOT deducted from their
  entitlement.
• For non pupil days, these are deducted as they
  are not a school holiday.
• If a teacher is off sick at the commencement of a
  school holiday, they will remain in whatever pay
  they are in at the start of the holiday
  throughout the holiday.
• For example, a teacher goes into ½ pay 15th July
  and does not return before the Summer break, that
  teacher will remain in ½ pay throughout the
  holiday

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Payroll Update

• Payroll contact details
• schoolspayroll_at_southend.gov.uk
• AND
• payrollenquiries_at_southend.gov.uk
• 212909
• AND
• 212110
• Please do ensure all pay change information is
  with the Payroll team by the cut off date

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HR Services for Schools

• Future dates
• February 2015

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HR Update Summer 2015

• Wednesday 13th May 2015, 1pm to 3.30pm,
  Tickfield, Darwin Room
• BUT do you want the option of attending a
  morning or an afternoon session? wed run it
  twice like Finance do!