Redeployment Toolkit
(October2014)
The attached toolkit sets out the background to redeployment (Part A), the process involved (Part B), the Appeals Mechanism (Part C) and responses to Frequently Asked Questions (Part D).It also includes background documents and templates used in the process (Part E).
It remains open to the staff or official side to suggest amendments to this document if the need arises in the future. The staff and official side will review its operation by end June 2014.
Section A: Background 2
1. Background to the Public Service Agreements, 2010-16 (Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements) 2
2. Staff Mobility 2
Section B: Redeployment Process 4
1. Obtaining sanction to fill a post through Redeployment 4
2. Receiving Organisation to advise the Public Appointments Service of sanction for a new post 4
3. The responsibilities of the Sending Organisation 4
4. PAS role and responsibilities 5
5. The Redeployment Liaison Officer 5
6. Identifying staff for redeployment 6
7. Matching staff with available vacancies 7
8. Factors to be considered by PAS before making definitive assignments 8
9. Acceptance of a post by staff - Terms and Conditions applying 9
10. Temporary Appointments 11
11. Career Break Returnees 11
12. Advising the PAS that an assignment has been made 12
13. Options where there are no applicants who match the post 12
Section C: Appeals Mechanism for Cross-Sectoral and Civil Service Redeployment Decisions 13
Section D: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 14
Section E: Appendices 17
Appendix 1 - Pension Contribution in respect of Secondments and Redeployments (F519/046/11) 17
Appendix 2 - Template for position to be filled by Redeployment 18
Appendix 3 - Template for the redeployment of staff on a secondment basis (indicative) 19
Appendix 4 - The treatment of pensions, pension contributions and pension charges 22
Appendix 5 - Re-designation Administrative InformationForm……………………………………………………………….27
Section A: Background
1. Background to the Public Service Agreements,2010-16 (Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements)
The Public Service Agreements (PSAs) covering the period 2010-16 (the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements) provide for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the Public Service. A Department of Public Expenditure and Reform circular (Circular 8/2010)setting out the arrangements across the Civil Service and between the Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSBs) issued in July 2010, following ratification of the Croke Park Agreement (CPA).
Under the PSAs, redeployment generally takes precedence over all other methods of filling a vacancy and supersedes any existing agreements on the deployment of staff.
Redeployment operates through a system of Resource Panels (RP) for the Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSBs) under their aegis. These panels contain details of the posts identified by organisations for redeployment in these sectors on the basis of changing business needs or ongoing management of the Employment Control Framework (ECF) ceilings by public service bodies. The Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the body charged with operating the Redeployment Panel System for these sectors and for cross-sectoral assignments. The agreed arrangements for the redeployment staff within the Health, Education, and Local Government sectors are managed directly by those sectors and are not covered in this Toolkit.
Under the Haddington Road Agreement (HRA), the parties involved reaffirmed the commitments given in paragraphs 1.5-1.12 of the CPA. To enhance management flexibility and optimise the redeployment arrangements, changes were introduced for the Civil Service and NCSSBs and for cross-sectoral redeployment. These affect how staff are identified for redeployment and strengthen the systems in place to match surplus staff with vacancies on a geographic basis within the guideline distance of 45km.
Progress on the implementation of the CPA, including progress on the redeployment of public servants within and across sectors of the Public Service, is monitored on a sectoral basis and was advised to the Implementation Body (http://implementationbody.gov.ie/progress-and-delivery/). As that body was replaced under the HRA by the management-union Agreement Oversight Group, sectoral progress reports will now be submitted on a 6-monthly basis tothe Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
2. Staff Mobility
Redeployment allows staff to be moved as a result of the rationalisation, reconfiguration or restructuring of public service bodies or where activities have assumed lesser priority arising from changing business needs. In the case of the Civil Service, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform can redeploy Civil Servants to meet priority needs (including levies of staff where necessary). Where functions are transferred within or between areas of the Civil or Public Service, associated staff will normally also transfer if a corresponding need has been identified.
In all sectors, redeployment takes precedence over recruitment, transfers and promotions, except where specialist skills are required or other major constraints apply. People may be moved to positions within 45km of their current work address or home address, whichever is the shorter,with account also being taken of a reasonable daily commute.
It is important to note that while staff may be moved between different locations as a consequence of the redeployment arrangements - beyond the 45km radius set out under the PSAs in certain circumstances – the arrangements were not designed for and are not used to facilitate requests from individuals for transfers to address personal circumstances.
Section B:Redeployment Process
This section provides useful information for public service bodies involved in redeployment and covers the steps in the redeployment process for “sending”and “receiving” organisations.[1]
1. Obtaining sanction to fill a post through Redeployment
Under the Employment Control Framework (ECF) system, Departments and public service bodies under their aegis must operate within particular staffing ceilings. Where an organisation is facing increasing demands for its services and consequential resource pressures, it must first seek to meet these demands from the reorganisation or restructuring of work or business units and/or the redeployment of staff internally[2]. Internal redeployment can include transfers from one NCSSB to another, provided both NCSSBs are within the same Departmental group. Such reassignments can take place without a request for sanction to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While such moves would take place outside of the Resource Panel system, the Terms & Conditions applying to such assignments will be those that apply under the Resource Panel system (i.e. as set out in section B10). Any such assignments must be notified to the PAS, to allow movement across the Public Service to be monitored.
If there is no scope to redeploy via the internal option, the public service body must seek sanction to fill the post. Government policy requires that any posts sanctioned must be filled by Redeployment in the first instance. As part of the process for seeking sanction, the Department must make a business case to Department of Public Expenditure and Reform justifying why the additional staff are needed. In the case of the various sectoral organisations and NCSSB’s, such staffing applications must be submitted via their parent Department, who must indicate their view on the relative priority of any cases submitted.
Where an appropriate match cannot be determined following the Redeployment process, the PAS will advise the sanctioning Vote in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform of the steps taken and the outcome. This will inform any further actions to be taken to meet the staffing needs identified.
As an alternative to seeking sanction for a specific post, Departments should first consider reorganising or redistributing the work (between staff or locations) and filling a post at another level/location for which surplus staff would be likely to be more readily available.
2. Receiving Organisation to advise the Public Appointments Service of sanction for a new post
Once sanction has been given to fill a post(s), the receiving organisation must inform the Public Appointments Service (PAS) that it has received that sanction and must provide information to the PAS on the post (see Appendix E2 for a summary of the details to be supplied).It is important to note that the filling of the sanctioned post(s) may not be commenced by a receiving organisation until this information has been received by the PAS.
3. The responsibilities of the Sending Organisation
The following is a description of the key responsibilities of an organisation that has staff to be redeployed:
· HR Unit reviews the ECF to ensure that the organisation does not exceed the numbers allocated to it;
· The HR Manager should outline to the staff and their unions, as soon as it becomes available, details of the outcome of the analysis undertaken in the context of the development of the organisation’s Workforce Action Plan to identify the gaps/areas where the current workforce does not match what is required to deliver on its objectives and the numbers of proposed redeployments in each grade and location and the basis for their selection. In the case of NCSSBs, statutory consultation requirements may also apply;
· Appoint a Redeployment Liaison Officer (RLO);
· Establish a dedicated redeployment mailbox accessible to the RLO which should be monitored on a daily basis;
· Advise staff of the range of information available in the Redeployment Toolkit and how this can be accessed.
· Use the prescribed process when redeploying staff and ensure that all redeployments go through the PAS. In the past,redeployments between organisations, particularly within the same Vote group, may have been brokered directly. Where that has been done, such redeployments must be advised to the PAS.
4. PAS role and responsibilities
Under sections 6.3 and 6.4 of the CPA, the PAS has been given the responsibility of brokering arrangements between sending and receiving organisations in the civil service Departments and the NCSSBs under their aegis. The HRA provides that redeployment must occur seamlessly across the Public Service, particularly at regional level and that this will be facilitated by the PAS which will match surplus staff with available vacancies on a geographic basis within the guideline distance. To achieve this objective the PAS will:
· facilitate the assignment of redeployees to new organisations;
· monitor and manage the staff Resource Panel system;
· ensure that the redeployment process meets the requirements of the PSAs;
· carry out a matching process between staff and roles;
· respond to queries from HR Units/RLOs relating to the uploading of information on the Resource Panel in a timely manner;
· through the Resource Panel Helpdesk, provide timely responses to questions relating to redeployment;[3]
· provide data regularly to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Personnel Officers on the number of posts on the RP and the number of assignments made.
It is envisaged that individuals will contact their own HR Unit to find out more about redeployment and access to vacancies. The PAS will direct any queries of this type to the relevant organisation.
5. The Redeployment Liaison Officer
The appointment of a RLO is essential to the effective implementation of the Redeployment Process. S/he should be based in the HR Unit of the organisation and will be required to work proactively with the PAS and with receiving organisations to ensure the early assignment of redeployees to alternative posts.
The PAS will set up the nominated RLO as a user on its database system and sends the RLO login details. Full instructions on uploading the data are available on the client portal of www.publicjobs.ie. The RLO will have access to data in relation to their own organisation only.
The responsibilities of the RLO will include:
· Working closely with the PAS to upload the required information onto the RP and ensuring all of the information is kept fully up to date;
· Using the prescribed process when redeploying staff and ensuring that all redeployments go through, or where appropriate are reported to, the PAS;
· Actively working with staff in their own organisation in relation to redeployment,including consulting with redeployees as soon as possible within the process and providing as much information as possible to the individual being redeployed in terms of the process and the implications for him/her;
· Liaising with receiving organisation, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and other relevant stakeholders when required.
6. Identifying staff for redeployment
Where a civil service or NCSSB organisation has posts in excess of its ECF or has other budgetary or business reasons to redeploy staff, individuals to be placed on the redeployment RP are identified as set out below. Where an organisation in another sector has verified to the PAS that its sectoral opportunities have been fully explored and that cross-sectoral redeployment is essential to allow for the placement of its staff, they must follow the same steps:
· Where an activity or programme is no longer being carried out, the posts associated with that activity or programme should be deemed to be surplus and available for redeployment.
· Surplus posts may also arise as a result of rationalisation, reconfiguration, reorganisation or restructuring of services or functions or as a result of the ECF or in line with business needs.
· The organisation should identify the number of posts at each relevant grade which are surplus, and the location of the surplus. Once a surplus has been established on this basis the identification of staff to be redeployed will proceed as follows: (i) volunteers will be sought for the RP and (ii) if the number of volunteers falls short of the surplus, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) will be applied, as appropriate.
Where organisations have notified the PAS of the details of the staff to be redeployed, the PAS will treat them as being fully available for release, at reasonable notice.
The Government’s policy on the downsizing of the Public Service requires public service managements to ensure that all available resources are used to the best effect and that new opportunities are explored for utilising staff on the public service payroll. In situations where a person with particular skills is available for redeployment, and another organisation could use them but doesn’t have the ECF numbers or the money to pay them, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has agreed that they can be reassigned on a supernumerary basis, and the information recorded by the PAS.