Guidance note G22 – updated March 2014
Pay and grading of Support Staff
Summary
This note gives general information and guidance about the pay and grading of support staff in schools. These are determined by both national and local agreements. Schools must use the County Council’s pay spine and grading system, and may not create their own pay rates. Schools are also strongly recommended to follow the County Council’s job evaluation system and guidance on allocating posts to grades.
Contents
1. Pay spine and grades for support staff / 1.1 / The Local Government Pay Spine1.2 / Pay Policy
2. Grading decisions and pay determination / 2.1 / Determination of Grades
2.2 / Salary on Appointment and Salary Progression
2.3 / Appeals Against Grading Decisions
3. Term-time working and occasional payments / 3.1 / Term Time Working
3.2 / Additional Hours and Overtime
3.3 / Acting-up Payments and Honoraria
4. Arrangements for particular groups / 4.1 / Caretakers and Cleaners-in-Charge
4.2 / Nursery Nurses
4.3 / Higher Level Teaching Assistants
1.Pay spine and grades for support staff
1.1The Local Government pay spine
Support staff are employed on conditions of service determined by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (the NJC). Pay rates for all support staff are derived from a single “spinal column” of points in the published in the national agreement, and supplemented by local agreement for points higher than point 36. The pay spine is reviewed annually and changes are made through a process of collective bargaining at national level. The outcomes of annual pay negotiations are normally implemented from 1 April each year.
Suffolk County Council has implemented the national “Single Status” agreement and harmonised conditions of service and pay grades for both (former) salaried and (former) manual employees.
The pay spine is divided into eight grades. Each grade consists of a range of points (usually between 8 and 12 in each grade, although some lower grades consist of fewer points). The pay spine is published by the County Council on its website.
Schools must adopt the pay system used by Suffolk County Council – i.e. the national spinal column and its pay values as supplemented by local agreement, and the system of grades used by the County Council.
1.2Pay policy
Every school must have a pay policy and the policy must include statement of its approach to the grading of support staff and set out a means by which employees who are dissatisfied with a local pay decision may appeal. It will usually be sufficient in the pay policy to refer to the school’s adoption of the County Council’s Single Status agreement, which contains the detail of the pay and grading system, and the means by which posts are allocated to grades within the system. The policy should have an appendix, which sets out the reporting structure of support staff posts in the school. Although the school’s pay policy is more likely to contain more detailed statements relating to teachers’ pay, support staff should be included in the consultation process which determines the policy in respect of those aspects which affect their pay and grading.
2.Grading decisions and pay determination
2.1Determination of grades
Under the County Council’s implementation of the national agreement on Single Status, allocation of a post to one of the eight grades within Suffolk County Council’s is by a system of job evaluation. The job evaluation system used is that agreed nationally by the NJC, as modified by locally agreed conventions. The job evaluation system used is a factor comparison system which has been developed to reflect the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. Use of the system under the guidance of the County Council’s advice should prevent any “equal pay” claims arising from support staff.
Support posts in schools should normally be graded using “generic” job descriptions. Generic job descriptions have been developed for the main types of support posts – i.e. clerical and administrative; technician; classroom support. Generic job descriptions do not detail every aspect of an individual post – they describe a level of responsibility and accountability to which the detailed job description developed by a school can be matched. The full range of generic job descriptions is available on the Schools surf.
When considering the grade of a new post, or reviewing the grading of an existing post as a result of a change in duties or responsibilities, a school should consider an appropriate range of generic job descriptions (usually 2 to 3) and identify the closest or most appropriate match. In the case of a review of grading for an existing employee, the headteacher or an appropriate member of the school’s management team should discuss the range of potential matches with the post holder and make every effort to reach agreement on which is most appropriate. In the case of disagreement advice is available through the Schools’ HR Team.
To assist schools in the general ranking of grades of classroom support a brief guide may be found in the Appendix to this guidance note. This relates to classroom support only.
2.2Salary on appointment and salary progression
Each grade within the pay system is sub-divided into two parts, separated by a “bar”. Appointment in each case should normally be within the lower part of the grade, unless the type of post is specifically designated as appropriately placed in the higher part. Salary on appointment should normally be to the lowest point of the grade. If the school is satisfied that it is necessary to pay a higher starting salary in order to attract the best candidate, the appointment may be made at any point up to and including the point below the bar.
Progression within each part of the salary scale is by annual increment, which is dependent upon successful performance in the post, as assessed through the Performance and Development (PDR) review process. Guidance on performance review for support staff is given in GuidanceNote G24. To ensure that an employee who is new in post is able to benefit from incremental progression where his/her performance supports this, ensure that his/her forward objectives are set soon after s/he starts and carry out a PDR review when s/he has been in post for six months. Provided that this is done, an increment may be paid from the first day of the eleventh month after his/her start date. After that s/he should be able to fit into the normal review cycle.
Progression through the “bar” depends upon the employee demonstrating that s/he has achieved the occupational competency to work at the highest level in the post and the school determining that it has a need for higher level work in the post. An employee may elect to submit the necessary evidence of competency and be assessed as having the ability to operate at the higher level, but must be employed in a post which requires this.
2.3Appeals against grading decisions
The governing body of each school is responsible for determining the choice of grade for support staff posts, which should be within the terms of the County Council’s Single Status agreement. The school’s pay policy should include a process whereby any member of support staff who is dissatisfied with his/her grade (or progression through the grade) may appeal to school management. The appeal process should set out a first stage which offers access to the manager (or committee) which made the initial pay decision and a second stage which offers access to the governing body’s appeals committee.
3.Term time working and occasional payments
3.1Term time working
Many school based employees do not work during school holidays and are therefore employed for part of the normal working year – for example 38 weeks or 40 week contracts are common. To reflect a correct proportion of the entitlement to annual leave, the following formula has been adopted to calculate the appropriate annual salary:
Annual Salary at Full Time Rate x Hours per Week x Weeks per Year
1700or 1670or 1663
Salary is enhanced to include entitlements to holiday pay proportionate to working hours per week and weeks per year. This is allowed for by using a ‘divisor’ that includes the number of hours which would actually be worked per year by a full-time employee of the same grade and length of service, i.e. the divisor is based on:
Full time hours per week x full time weeks per year, minus annual leave and bank holiday entitlement (hours) equals annual hours worked for full time person.
The divisors for different grades and lengths of services are as follows (shown in bold):
All grades, less than 5 years’ service
Entitlement 31 days (23 annual leave + 8 bank holiday):
(37 x 52.143) 1929 hrs - (31 x 7.4) 229 hrs = 1700 hours
Grades 1-4, with 5 years’ service or more
Entitlement 35 days (27 annual leave + 8 bank holiday):
(37 x 52.143) 1929 hrs - (35 x 7.4) 259 hrs = 1670 hours
Grade 5 or above, with 5 years’ service or more
Entitlement 36 days (28 annual leave + 8 bank holiday):
(37 x 52.143) 1929 hrs - (36 x 7.4) 266 hrs = 1663 hours
Payment of salary is made in twelve equal monthly instalments. No adjustment is normally made on leaving in respect of either technical overpayments nor technical underpayments. The calculation set out above operates fairly provided that schools ensure that on appointment employment starts (at the beginning of term) on the first of the month before the start of the new term and employment ends at the end of the month following the last day of the term when employment ended (or on 31 August at the end of the Summer Term). Employment starting or ending over the Easter break may need to be approached differently where there is no equitable “month end”. Schools should ensure that employees leaving are not deprived of a reasonable proportion of the payment of salary made during school closure periods.
Term time only employees (including Nursery Nurses) must take all leave in school closure periods (except for maternity support leave and any special leave, paid or unpaid, granted by the school).
3.2Additional hours and overtime
Employees who work additional hours over and above their contracted hours of work are entitled to be paid for those hours. Where an employee is part time s/he is entitled to be paid at the same rate as for their normal hours of work. Where an employee is full time (i.e. s/he works for 37 hours per week throughout the full calendar year s/he is entitled to be paid at the appropriate overtime rate, which will normally be “time and half”. Claims for additional work must be made on the appropriate form.
3.3Acting-up payments and honoraria
Schools may determine to make an acting-up payment or an honorarium. An acting up payment is appropriate where an employee takes on the full duties of a more senior post for a substantial period (usually four weeks or more) in the absence of the post-holder or where there is a vacancy pending recruitment to a vacant post. The employee acting up should receive a salary which is not less than the minimum point of the salary for the “acting up” post, and at least one incremental point higher than his/her substantive salary.
An honorarium is appropriate where an employee takes on additional duties of a higher paid post for a temporary period (for whatever reason), but not the full duties. The school should estimate the proportion of the duties at the higher level which the employee has undertaken, the period over which the duties have been undertaken and calculate a payment. Advice is available from the Duty HR Caseworker on 01473 265440. Honoraria are normally paid as a lump sum retrospectively.
4.Arrangements for particular groups
4.1Caretakers and Cleaners-in-Charge
The pay and grading of caretakers and cleaners-in-charge is determined through the normal grading system for school support staff. These posts may attract payment for periodic working out of normal hours to facilitate the use of school premises by community and other similar groups (“lettings”). Payment for “lettings” and other arrangements peculiar to caretakers and cleaners-in-charge are set out in the County Council’s local agreement of 1998 (PolicyDocumentP65).
4.2Nursery Nurses
Qualified Nursery Nurses are contracted by a variation of the National Agreement to work for 32½ hours per week for the 39 weeks of school term (including teachers’ professional development days). They are paid a “full year” salary (i.e. their pay is not adjusted as per the “term time only” formula). Nursery nurses who work for les than 32½ hours per week are paid as part time for the appropriate proportion of a 32½ hour working week.
4.3Higher Level Teaching Assistants
Higher Level Teaching Assistants are teaching assistants who have successfully completed an assessment of competence according to national standards set by the Training and Development Agency, and for whom a post as an HLTA is identified by the school (qualification alone does not entitle a teaching assistant to be paid as an HLTA). The grade for an HLTA is identified as the range above the bar in Grade 4 – the national competency assessment, which requires appropriate practical experience, is deemed to be sufficient for progression beyond the grade bar.
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SUMMARY OF CLASSROOM SUPPORT ROLESAPPENDIX A
Job title / Grade and progression points, subject to performance/operational need /Key* requirements for appointment (or normal minimum expectations)
/ Routes to qualification/assessment (in addition to normal performance mgmt) / Brief* description of roleHLTA
(Higher Level Teaching Assistant) / Grade 4, above the mid-point bar
Pt 24 - 28 / Award of HLTA status. (This is not a qualification, but recognition of the level at which the individual is capable of operating) / Assessment by an approved training provider, against 31 standards developed by the Teacher Training Agency. Either Assessment Only (3days training) or Full Training (50 days)
Plus courses below / Carrying out work in order to assist or support a qualified teacher in accordance with arrangements made by the Headteacher. (Specified work: Planning and preparing or delivering lessons; assessing or reporting development, progress and attainment of pupils.) HLTAs may be required to supervise other classroom support staff
Teaching Assistant – Level E2
(Cover Supervisor) / Grade 4, below the mid-point bar
Pt 20 - 23
(Above mid-point bar normally reserved for HLTA posts) / Recruitment against detailed job description and Headteacher’s assessment that individual has the skills, expertise and experience required to carry out specified work / DfES 4-day Introduction to TA course – Primary or Secondary version as approp.
2-day course for TAs involved in cover supervision
HLTA Course
NVQ Level 2 or 3 (some accreditation evidence may be drawn from DfES course) / Although the teacher plans and directs learning, Teaching Assistants at this level are expected to make a significant contribution to pupil learning and development. Cover Supervision occurs when the Teaching Assistant takes sole charge of a group of pupils when no active teaching is taking place and no specified work, as described above, is required. (Pupils continue their learning by carrying out a pre-prepared exercise under supervision)
Teaching Assistant – Level D / Grade 4, with progression through full grade
Pt 20-28 / Experience of working with pupils with significant Special Educational Needs in a Special School setting / Under the direction of the teacher (in the whole class, a small group or with an individual pupil), supporting pupils, the teacher, the curriculum and the school. Duties range from routine tasks and listening to reading, to the use of specialist skills (eg, BSL and Braille) and liaison with outside agencies
Each school is organised differently, and the range of duties carried out at each Teaching Assistant level will vary from school to school. With flexibility for local circumstances, the levels opposite would typically apply: / This level is most commonly required in Special Schools
Teaching Assistant – Level C / Grade 3, above mid-point bar
Pt 17- 21 / Experience of the National Curriculum and/or supervising other TAs / This level may be required in Special, Middle, Upper or High Schools
Teaching Assistant – Level B / Grade 3, below mid-point bar
Pt 12 - 16
(Above mid-point bar reserved for Level C posts) / Experience of National Curriculum, particularly in Literacy and Numeracy / This level may be required in any school phase
Teaching Assistant – Level A / Grade 2, with progression through full grade
Pt 7 – 13 / Entry-level post. Applicant demonstrates interest in working with children and young people / This level may be required in any school phase
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