News & Views
FREE Legal webinar – Keeping Children Safe Online
Ashfords Law Firm are offering schools the opportunity to attend their free webinar.
The webinar takes place next Tuesday 28th March 2023, at 12.30pm (for 30 minutes).
The webinar will focus on the legal requirements for processing children’s personal data as well as considering some of the wider regulatory aspects of keeping children safe online.
For more information and to register, please click here:
https://www.ashfords.co.uk/events/data-protection-webinar-keeping-children-safe-online
NJC Terms and Conditions – Additional Annual Leave Entitlement
SCHOOL ACTION REQUIRED to take effect from 1 April 2023
Please note, from 1 April 2023, all employees covered by NJC terms and conditions, regardless of their current leave entitlement or length of service, will receive a permanent increase of one day (pro rata for part-timers) to their annual leave entitlement.
The National Agreement Part 2 Para 7.2 will, with effect from 1 April 2023, be amended to read as follows:
7.2 Annual Leave With effect from 1 April 2023, the minimum paid annual leave entitlement is twenty-three days with a further three days after five years of continuous service.
The entitlement as expressed applies to five day working patterns. For alternative working patterns an equivalent leave entitlement should be calculated.
The annual leave entitlement of employees leaving or joining an authority is proportionate to their completed service during the leave year.
School action:
Schools to:
- Support staff employees working all year round will become entitled to one additional day.
- recalculate the annual leave entitlement for each support staff employee including an additional day for all staff, using Southwark’s TTO calculator. (for TTO staff only)
- inform their employees of the change in their terms and conditions and what this means to them.
- notify payroll of any changes in salary.
For full information please see Local Government Services Pay Agreement 2022-23 (pdf, 173kb)
DBS Conference 2023 – 29th March 2023, 9:00am – 4:30pm
The Disclosure and Barring Service are offering an online conference.
This conference is open to all with an interest in safeguarding.
The conference is an online event on Wednesday 29th March 9:00am – 4:30pm. There will be an exciting mix of keynote speakers from DBS and the wider safeguarding community, alongside different workshops to participant in.
As the event is online, there will be recordings available post conference to view so please still sign up if you are only able to attend part of the day or not able to attend on the day.
To book: https://registration.livegroup.co.uk/dbsevents2023/
Contact: Kiran Rehal | Regional Outreach Adviser (Greater London)
Disclosure and Barring Service
Tel: 0300 105 3081
Email: Kiranpreet.Rehal@dbs.gov.uk
💻: https://www.gov.uk/dbs
Strike Action - Education Support Free Helpline
We know the current strike action may have an emotional impact on you and your staff. Education Support provides free and confidential helpline to support you and your staff - every day of the year. Their number is 08000 562 561.
Education Support helpline poster (pdf, 74kb)
School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions 2023 – Update
1st March 2023
The NEOST evidence, informed by the recent survey results received from local authorities and schools (Employer Link members), has been submitted and can be found in the link below (Our ‘one stop webpage for teachers’ pay 2023’).
The NEOST evidence notes that the pay bill is one of the highest demands on overall school budgets, as well as noting that not all schools are in the same financial position and therefore NEOST continues to argue that adequate, sustainable funding is needed to ensure any proposed pay award can be fully implemented by all schools.
You will also find the full DfE published written evidence to STRB. You may be interested to note paragraph 52, under the affordability section, which states ‘the Department’s view is that an award of 3.5 per cent (three per cent awards for experienced teachers, plus awards to raise starting salaries to £30,000) will be manageable within schools’ budgets next year, on average, following the additional funding provided at Autumn Statement.’
A reminder, with regards overall timescale, the STRB have confirmed that following the oral evidence sessions in April, they intend to send their recommendation to government in May. We hope the STRB report and draft STPCD will be published by Government well before the summer school closures.
NJC Terms and Conditions Update – Support Staff
The National Employers have on 23rd February 2023 made a full and final offer to the trade unions representing local government services (‘Green Book’) employees. The details are set out in the attached employer circular.
Employer Circular - pay update (pdf, 288kb)
Teachers Pay 2023 – School Teachers’ Review Body revised timeline
Following the DfE’s decision to delay the submission of their evidence, the School Teacher Review Body (STRB) Chair has written to all statutory consultee’s (including NEOST) setting out the revised timeline for the STRB’s process in reporting its recommendations on teachers’ pay 2023 and other reforms as directed by the Government’s remit letter published late last year.
The deadline for written evidence has been extended to 22 March 2023 from the original deadline of 27 January 2023. The NEOST evidence therefore will be published on the website at the same time as the DfE‘s evidence.
Most importantly the STRB still plan to submit their report / recommendation in May 2023, following oral evidence sessions w/c 17 April 2023.
We will keep you updated.
STPCD 2022 – additional bank holiday on 8th May 2023 for the Coronation
As a result of the additional bank holiday on 8th May for the Coronation, the DfE are in the process of amending the STPCD to take account of this in terms of numbers of days and hours teachers are required to be available for work in the 22-23 academic year. The current intention is to try and publish the revised STPCD by the end of March 2023, but this is subject to approval from Parliamentary business managers and could change. We will keep you posted if that is the case.
Southwark Schools HR – 31st January 2023
NJC Pay Claim for Local Government Services (‘Green Book’) – 1st April 2023
The NJC Trade Unions have submitted the 2023 pay claim. The claim seeks:
- RPI + 2 per cent on all pay points
The detail in the unions’ claim cites an RPI figure of 10.7 per cent, which is the current annual forecast for RPI in 2023, published in November 2022 by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Therefore, to meet the pay element of the claim in full (12.7 per cent) would increase local government’s national paybill by more than £2.1bn.
- Consideration of a flat rate increase to hourly rates of pay in order to bring the minimum rate up to £15 per hour within two years
- A review and improvement of NJC terms for family leave and pay
- A review of job evaluation outcomes for school staff whose day-to-day work includes working on Special Educational Needs (SEN)
- An additional day of annual leave for personal or well-being purposes
- A homeworking allowance for staff for whom it is a requirement to work from home
- A reduction in the working week by two hours
- A review of the pay spine, including looking at the top end, and discussions about the link between how remuneration can be used to improve retention
This will need to be considered by the employer side.
We will keep you updated.
Understanding The Basics Of Investigations
Understanding what to do when asked to carry out an investigation under the Disciplinary, Capability, or the Grievance procedure, can appear daunting to School Leaders and Business Managers, as it is not a regular feature of their role. However, there will be times when they are called upon to lead an investigation. With this in mind, the Schools HR team has arranged a workshop on investigations for School Leaders and Business Managers. The session will give managers and team leaders an overview of the investigation process as well as the practical tools and techniques necessary to carry out a thorough investigation.
The session will cover:
- The purpose of investigations
- The different stages of carrying out effective investigations
- Your role at different stages in the process
- Investigation interviews
- The investigation report
Course fees
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For SLA schools |
For non-SLA schools |
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£55 per delegate |
£75 per delegate |
Upcoming training
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Time |
To book |
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9:30am to 11:30am |
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12nn to 2pm |
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2:pm to 4pm |
NEU – PLANNED STRIKE ACTION
Date of comms: 17th January 2023
Please see below DfE confirmation of NEU national and regional planned strike days and the planned process for DfE collecting data & DfE guidance on handling strike action in schools that was published on 16th January 2023.
Southwark Schools HR will be issuing further information to support schools during this time.
The National Education Union (NEU) has today announced that its ballot of teacher members in England has met the thresholds required to commence industrial action. The ballot of support staff members in England failed to achieve the 50% turnout required by law.
The NEU has announced national and regional action in England on the following dates:
- Wednesday 1 February 2023: all eligible members in England and Wales.
- Tuesday 28 February 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: Northern, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber.
- Wednesday 1 March 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern.
- Thursday 2 March 2023: all eligible members in the following English regions: London, South East, South West.
- Wednesday 15 March 2023: all eligible members in England and Wales.
- Thursday 16 March 2023: all eligible members in England and Wales.
Should the NEU decide to proceed with industrial action, they must give employers at least 2 weeks’ notice.
To support schools, we have updated our handling strike action in schools guidance In the event of strike action, we expect headteachers and governing bodies to take all reasonable steps to keep schools open for as many pupils as possible. The guidance provides examples of approaches and flexibilities that can be used to maximise attendance and explains the law on trade disputes and picketing.
If the numbers of staff on strike means a school must temporarily prioritise places they should, where possible, apply the principles set out in the separate emergency planning and response guidance by giving priority to vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers.
In addition to prioritising vulnerable children and young people and children of critical workers, schools should consider prioritising pupils due to take public examinations and other formal assessments.
Where schools must restrict attendance, they should consider, where possible, providing remote education in line with the providing remote education: guidance for schools.
Shortly before a planned strike day, we intend to ask schools whether they are likely to be open, closed or restricting attendance, as a result of NEU’s action. We will send a link to a secure online form which schools can access through their usual DfE login.