School Governance & Workforce Development Governor Briefing Area Notes: Summer Term 2013

CONTENTS

Briefing Note:

  1. Governing Body Agenda Items for the Summer Term
  2. Single Status Agreement
  3. Pupil Premium
  4. Teacher’s Pay & Conditions Document

NOTES FOR AREAREPRESENTATIVES

You have received these briefing notes as one of the governors representing your school governing body on the local School GovernorArea Briefings. They are intended to ‘signpost’ those issues your governing body may need or wish to address in the SummerTerm 2013.

You are not intended to be an expert on all these matters but to have information which enables you to draw them to the attention of your colleague governors. There will be some opportunity to ask questions at your forum meeting.

You may then wish to give a copy of the appropriate note to the Chair of any committee or particular governor dealing with the matter it outlines. These notes are printed so that they can be detached and separated as individual documents.

Most briefing notes identify information already available in school and a person to contact if your governing body needs further information or advice.

The production of these notes is one of the services provided by the School Governor Service.Thank you for the work you do in support of your school and its children.

Clive Linnett

Acting Head of School Governance & Workforce Development

Tel: (01274) 385629 Fax: (01274) 385983

E-mail

BRIEFING NOTE 1
First Meeting /

Set the budget for the year

/

April/May

Review Progress against School Development Plan

Headteacher’s Report

Second Meeting / Review attendance of pupils and staff
Review pupil exclusions for the year
Evaluate the governing body’s effectiveness over the last year against the targets set in the Autumn term
Review the year’s racist incidents and monitor Race Equality Action Plan (REAP)
Report from Governor Forum
Review the pay of all staff
Consider School improvement Dialogue (SID)

Items in bold are statutory requirements

Other items which should be discussed on a regular/planned basis:

MonitorSchool Development/Improvement Plan

Write new policies/review existing policies

Report from Committees

Report from ‘named’ governors (e.g. SEN, Literacy, Numeracy, Child Protection)

Governors’ visits to school

Governor development and training (to include succession planning for any governors whose term is coming to an end)

Reports from governors who have attended training or a conference

Induction of new governors

Evaluate external data e.g. LA School Profile/RAISEonline

School Governance & Workforce Development

Tel: (01274) 385629 Fax: (01274) 385983

E-mail

BRIEFING NOTE 2

Single Status - Community & VoluntaryControlledSchools & Nursery schools (where the Council is the employer)

The Council, including many of its schools, has faced a significant number of Equal Pay Claims. These claims are generally from women in predominantly female occupations comparing themselves with men in predominantly male occupations who are paid more, but are job evaluated at the same grade or level. To date this has cost the Council and its schools in excess of £10m to settle these claims.

In order to end this continuing liability the Council (in line with authorities nationally), has been working towards implementing the 1997 national Single Status Agreement, to produce an equality proof pay structure. This agreement requires Councils to merge former manual workers and former APT&C staff into a single group (Local Government Services). This includes all non teaching/support and nursery staff. The National Joint Council (NJC) also produced a new job evaluation scheme to cover both groups of staff.

As part of the process of eliminating the grounds for equal pay claims, along with re-evaluating the roles of all affected workers, the Council took action to remove all bonus payments to predominantly male former manual worker groups in September 2010. This was the primary source of pay inequality. This process will only be complete however when a suitable pay structure is also introduced.

The Council has applied the NJC job evaluation scheme to all posts up to and including Scale 6 as a first stage. This was in order to address the levels of staff generating equal pay claims. The Council completed a new pay structure up to this grade which was implemented in June 2012.

The Council has been working with schools over the last couple of years with a view to implementing the pay structure results in those schools where we remain the employer. As a first phase this again is to be limited to Scale 6 and below.

Schools have been included in this process as this is the only mechanism to ensure the ending of equal pay claims. As you will be aware, schools enjoy certain delegated powers to set their own rates of pay. However, in law the Council and schools (where the Council remains the employer) are seen as a single employer. Equal pay claims are judged on this basis by tribunals, and without a common pay structure there will remain an unacceptable risk of future claims.

Through consultation largely conducted with Business Managers, common job types have been established and job evaluation undertaken to establish a new grading outcome for schools. This was largely based on evaluations carried out at a limited number of volunteer pilot schools, subsequently provided to all schools.

The Council has recently written to schools to check the data we have and to provide them with our developing results. Once we have received and incorporated their final comments, it is our intention to move to implementation of the pay structure and evaluation results in schools.

What Governors Need to do:

In order to implement in schools, it is necessary for each individual Governing Body to formally adopt the Council’s proposals. This includes the pay structure, job evaluation results, appeals procedure and pay protection policy.

The purpose of this Briefing Note is twofold:

1)To introduce all governors to the background to the Single Status process & a summary of schools involvement to date,

2)To alert governors to the forthcoming approach from the Council requesting that Governing Bodies formally adopt our pay structure, JE results and pay protection arrangements. Formal contact will be made with Governing Bodies during the next 2/3 months requesting formal adoption.

3)Copies of a schools version of the Council’s Pay Protection Policy & Job Evaluation Appeals Procedure will be sent to all governors & Head Teachers before Easter. This will provide for consideration in advance of the Council’s request for adoption.

If you require any further information or clarification please contact, Richard Hammond, David Fursland or Grahame Allan in the Single Status Team, on (01274) 434931, 437692, or 434065.

BRIEFING NOTE 3

Pupil Premium Grant

You are probably aware that part of the Coalition Government’s Strategy to reduce achievement gaps between advantaged and vulnerable pupils is through the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG). This is allocated to schools on the basis of numbers of pupils who have received free school meals (FSM) or been in the care of the Local Authority (CLA) at any time in the last six years and children of families in the Armed Services. Children need to be between the ages of four and 16 to meet the criteria.

The PPG is not ring-fenced and schools are free to spend it as they wish but need to be able to demonstrate that its expenditure is contributing to closing performance gaps between children who experience social disadvantage and others.

The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the financial year of allocation. Some or all of it may be carried forward to future financial years. If schools choose to do this, the rationale must be clear as the grant is intended to benefit children who are currently in school.

Reporting on how the pupil premium is spent

Schools are expected to report on how they spend their PPG for each academic year. However, the PPG is allocated to schools in financial years. As schools will not know their full funding for the later half of the academic year, schools should report on their known funding allocation up to the end of the financial year and update the published information as the full figures become available.

From September 2012, schools have been required to publish online information about how they have used the PPG. This will ensure that parents and others are made fully aware of the progress and attainment of pupils covered by the premium.

Must the money be kept separate from the school budget?

It is for individual schools to decide whether to transfer the grant into a separate account. The money will not be subject to separate auditing procedures.

Recommendations from Ofsted Survey

  • School leaders, including governing bodies, should ensure that Pupil Premium funding is not simply absorbed into mainstream budgets, but is carefully targeted at the designated children. They should be able to identify clearly how the money is being spent.
  • School leaders, including governing bodies, should evaluate their Pupil Premium spending, avoid spending it on activities that have little impact on achievement for their disadvantaged pupils, and spend it in ways known to be most effective.
  • Schools should continue to seek ways to encourage parents and carers to apply for free school meals where pride, stigma or changing circumstances act as barriers to its take-up.
  • Local authorities should ensure that there is greater consistency and transparency in the way in which the Pupil Premium is allocated to non-mainstream schools.
  • Ofsted should continue to evaluate the use of Pupil Premium funding by schools to ensure that they are focusing it on disadvantaged pupils and using it effectively.
  • If schools do not target Pupil Premium money effectively, then government should consider ring fencing, payment linked to outcomes, or other mechanisms to improve its use.

Examples of uses in Bradford

Counselling and behaviour support
Help fund a Breakfast Club
Early intervention for targeted pupils
Easter holiday booster classes
Enrichment activities, including extension of outdoor learning / Increase the hours of our Parental Involvement Worker
Increase teaching assistant support aimed at targeted groups
Nurture group
Nursery nurse
Provide one to one tuition / Providing small group support focused on closing gaps in learning
Provide an additional after school homework support group
Provide quality, effective feedback to individual pupils by way of weekly tutorial meetings
Software to support independent learning / Speech and Language support
Staff training and consultancy support
Support for families
Support materials
Subsidies for trips and residential visits

Best On-line Information

Information on the school’s website about use of pupil premium should

  • Be easy to find!
  • Give overview of PPG and why it has been introduced
  • Provide access to Pupil Premium Policy
  • Give total allocation of PPG and breakdown of expenditure for each year
  • Give impact for 2011/12 and intended impact for 2012/13

A summary of what Governors need to do

  • Consider ways to improve the take up of free school meals to benefit the school overall as well as eligible children and families
  • Be aware of the amount of grant coming into school, check the way it is being spent and monitor the difference it is making
  • Publish on line (normally on the school’s website) a breakdown of how the grant was spent last year and the impact of this as well as how it is being spent this year and the intended impact. Make sure it is in a place where parents can find it easily.
  • It is good practice also to publish the pupil premium policy on line
  • Receive reports of pupils’ progress which include the relative progress of pupils in receipt of FSM and others.

Website examples

If you wish to look at examples of how schools have presented their information on their websites, try Farfield Primary (farfieldprimary.com, DixonsCityAcademy (dixonsca.com)

You may also wish to look at case studies of Bradford schools that have been particularly effective at closing gaps between pupils on free school meals and others. You will find these at Bradford Schools on Line, Equality Diversity and Achievement, Closing the Gap, KS2.
BRIEFING NOTE 4

Teachers Pay and Conditions Update

The 2012 edition of the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document contains within it a number of the changes from the 2011 document, which governors need to aware of. This document, "contains the statutory requirements for teachers' pay and conditions that maintained schools and local authorities in England and Wales must abide by.”

The main changes to the Document since 2011 that governors need to be made aware of are as follows,

1. There is no longer a reference to the Core Standards; these have been replaced by the Teachers' Standards (for England only). These new standards set a clear baseline of expectations for the professional practice and conduct of teachers and define the minimum level of practice expected of teachers in England. All teachers in maintained schools should have their performance assessed against these standards. Academies and Independent schools will not have to assess their teachers’ performance against Part One of the Teachers’ Standards as part of an annual appraisal process.

2. A new Appraisal Policy has been introduced for teachers. Bradford Council HR has negotiated their policy locally with the recognised trade unions. As above, the performance of teachers is assessed against the Teacher Standards.

3. A teacher employed full time, must be available for work 195 days/1265 hours (the figures for the previous two years having been 194 and 1258.5 respectively due to additional public holidays).

4. References to the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) have been removed due to the abolition of the GTCE.

5. A headteacher can no longer be paid within an Individual School Range (ISR) range that is greater than that stipulated as part of the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document. The following matters no longer form part of the determination of the ISR and are dealt with as discretionary payments:

  • schools causing concern;
  • difficulties filling a vacant headteacher post;
  • difficulties retaining the current headteacher; and
  • temporary appointment as a headteacher of more than one school.

Governing Bodies may also make discretionary payments to headteachers in accordance with the provisions of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document relating to:

(i) continuing professional development undertaken outside the school day;

(ii) activities relating to the provision of initial teacher training as part of the ordinary conduct of the school;

(iii) participation in out-of-school hours learning activity agreed between the headteacher and the governing body;

(iv) additional responsibilities and activities due to, or in respect of, the provision of services by the Headteacher relating to the raising of educational standards to one or more additional schools.

Recruitment and Retention Incentives and Benefits

The total of all discretionary payments made to a headteacher in respect of any school year must not exceed 25 per cent of the amount which corresponds to that individual’s point on their ISR for that year. All discretionary payments received in relation to their role as a headteacher count towards the limit except for where payments to headteachers for residential duties are a requirement of the post or the extent that relocation expenses awarded under the recruitment and retention incentive and benefit provisions relate solely to the personal circumstances of the headteacher.

Further changes are coming in the future...

School Teachers' Review Body: 21st Report 2012

On 21st February 2012, the Secretary of State for Education asked the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) to review current provisions for teachers' pay with a view to raising the status of the profession and contributing to improving the standard of teaching in schools. The 21st report is the response to this request. The Government has accepted all the key recommendations of the report and these are to be implemented through a revised School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document in September 2013. The key recommendations are:

1. Replacement of increments based on length of service by differentiated progression through the main pay scale to reward excellence and performance improvement.

2. Extension to all teachers of pay progression linked to annual appraisal.

3. Abolition of mandatory pay points within the pay scales for classroom teachers, to enable pay decisions, points at present to be retained for reference only in the main pay scale, to guide career expectations for new teachers.

4. Retention of a broad national framework, including the higher pay bands for London and fringe areas and an upper pay scale as a career path for experienced teachers who make a wider contribution to the school.

5. Replacement of the unnecessary detailed threshold test for progression from the Main Pay Scale to Upper Pay Scale with a simple criteria based on one set of teacher standards.

6. Local flexibility for schools to create posts paying salaries above the upper pay scale.

7. More discretion for schools in the use of allowances for recruitment and retention and freedom to pay fixed term responsibility allowances of up to £2,500 a year for time limited projects.

8. Reinforcement of the responsibility of headteachers to manage staff and resources and of governing bodies to hold school leaders to account for managing and rewarding the performance of teachers in the interests of the pupils.

9. A much more simplified School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document.

The report also made a number of further recommendations, which have been accepted by the government, these are:

­The retention for now of the four geographical pay bands.

­Differentiated performance-based progression on the main pay scale, with higher rewards and more rapid progression for the most able teachers.