Date:Wednesday 3rd February 2016
Time:9:00am – 12:00pm
Venue:Room LB41, Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham NG2 3NG
Attendees from Schools:Fiona Mackenzie, Richard Dejewski, Sandesh Kuckian, Linda Cronin, Heather James, Lucy Cogdon, Lynette Randall, Claire Grange, John Wilson, Carol Attewell, Melloney Adams, Sharon Underwood, Sarah Griffiths, Stephanie Chadwick, Melanie Holton, Alison Kane, Janet Molyneax, Caron Pownall, Susan Bosworth, Michelle Jennison, Karen Foster, Angela Main, Anne-Marie Williams, Wendy Aske, Wendy Barron, Di Johnson, Tracy Doolan, Rachel Lee
Presenters:Mick Evans, Mandy Bryce, Vicky Simpson, Deborah Korn, Maggie Shirran, Matt Draycott, David Thompson, Frances Rowland, Anna Macdonald, Michelle Gabbitas, Emma Gibson, Jacqui Armand, Carol McCrone
Minutes taken by Parvinder Kaur
Item No / Item / Presented By1 / SAS Sponsoring
Special thanks to SAS for sponsoring refreshments. Les Marshall from SAS was also around to answer any questions about staff absence insurance.
2 / Introduction
Mick Evans – Pupils & Schools Service Manager welcomed all to the meeting.
Contact details:
Phone: 8765022 / Mick Evans
3 / Schools Finance
Mandy talked through the web based budget planner, the revised fair funding scheme and also reminded everyone about the FMS training which will be taking place on Wednesday 24th February at the Nottingham E Learning Centre.
•2015-16 Closedown Process
•2016-17 Budget Setting
•Revised Fair Funding Scheme
•February Finance Training
Also on the site is the schools finance calendar for next year and it is ready to download now.
If you have any further questions, please contact Mandy on 0115 87 64214 or email / Mandy Bryce
4 / Facilities Management
Ken France is now covering passengers transport whilst Vicky Simpson is taking over the day to day operations of facilities management however; Ken will be around to support Vicky on Wednesdays weekly.
Vicky mentioned that all FM leaders are all in post now and will be introduced soon.
There has been an issue with window cleaning due to the truck being broken towards the bottom however two new trucks are on order.
Ken will be sending round an email this week with regards to Nottingham City Council offering first aid training. If you are interested please could you respond to the email.
Grounds maintenance are looking to set up a communication system so that schools are aware of the work that the grounds staff have completed.
If you have any queries please contact Vicky Simpson on 0115 87 65786 or email or Sim Durha (WISE) on or phone 0115 87 65649 / Vicky Simpson
5 / Data Analysis
Deborah thanked everyone for their census and getting it in on time and also introduced Helena Bradfield.
As a default everyone needs to opt in to data checking unless they email Deborah Korn by 10th February and say otherwise.
If you have any queries please contact Deborah Korn on 0115 87 64838 or email or Helena Bradfield on 0115 87 54084 / Deborah Korn
6 / SIMS Update
Maggie talked about the upgrade being deployed to schools in the first two weeks after the Easter holiday.
It appeared that the bookwhen site is working for everyone. There has also been a demand for more secondary training so more courses have been added -
Maggie mentioned that there have been quite a few repeat calls and requested to those who import CTFs to check for any duplicated before importing and also have a look at the intake groups and to withdraw pupils who do not arrive at school.
Contact details:
Phone: 0115 87 50900 / Maggie Shirran
7 / Schools IT Service/Technical Update
Matt spoke about Ransomware and how it encrypts your files and asks you to pay for the files to be put back on. If you receive an email posing as Apple, Royal Mail etc. which contains an attachment pdf.exe he advised not to open it if you’re not expecting it. He also mentioned that the email may not contain an attachment. The ways to protect this from happening is to make sure your AV is up to date, don’t open the links or attachments and ask if you’re unsure. If you think you’ve been affected, switch your computer off. Memory sticks will also be encrypted if they are plugged in to your computer too.
In terms of broadband renewal, virgin media promised that they should be able to get the pricing within the next week which would mean that there would be a couple of weeks to get everyone signed up.
The installations will begin in March and it has been advised that schools budget £1000 for installation costs.
Schools will have been billed up until 31st March for services and pricing for all services are still unlimited.
Contact details:
Phone: 07950430006 / Matt Draycott
8 / Health and Safety
David talked about the new pupil risk assessment and how the existing “individual pupil” risk assessment has been renamed “high-profile pupil” risk assessment.
Information around dining area slips guidance will be published soon.
The DfE have sent out a questionnaire to all schools about how they manage asbestos. The deadline for completion of the questionnaire is Monday 29th February 2016.
Information and guidance is available from the Major Programmes team regarding the Capital Maintenance Budget. The deadline to get all BIDS in is Monday 29th February 2016.
Site Manager Training Details
If any school wishes to know when their Site Manager / Caretaker last attended the course can they please drop me an e-mail.
Asbestos in schools: DfE data collection
Opportunity to bid for Capital Maintenance Funding
Contact details:
Phone: 0115 87 64608 / David Thompson
9 / ESN/ESD
Michelle informed all who attended that the prices for services are now on the ESN site.
If anyone has any queries with regards to invoices please get in touch with Anna Macdonald before the invoice date.
Frances thanked SAS for sponsoring refreshments for this meeting and went on to talk about annual orders. Deadlines have been set and prices for annual orders have been finalised. Documentation about what you ordered last year and the new order form will be sent to you by Wednesday 10thFebruary. Frances also talked about the different types of local authority contracts e.g. annual, annual rolling, 3 year and FMS. If anyone would like a free blank copy of the contracts register please contact Frances will post on Admin Meetings intranet page. This tool is for you to help you manage all your contracts, internal and external.
Support tools were also discussed when buying services such as contracts schedules. Frances emails this out once a year after your annual order has been processed but email her any time in the year for an updated version as annual order sometimes alters through year.
Contact details:
Phone: 0115 87 64601
Phone: 0115 87 64595
Phone: 0115 87 64598
Phone: 0115 87 64260 / Michelle Gabbitas/
Anna Macdonald and Frances Rowland
10 / EMSS
Changes have been made to the EMSS recruitment website and there is now a section for schools teaching and schools support.
The local government pay award offer affects all support staff. The offer at the moment is a 2 year final pay offer.
All teachers’ pension statements will all be on-line and you will need to make sure you register for access -
Please ensure payroll numbers on documentation are correct as there have been a few issues around this.
Academies may be eligible for an employment allowance of £2000 which will be increasing to £3000 from 6th April 2016 if they fit the criteria. The criteria can be found on the MNRC website -
State Pension changes being introduced by the Government, contracted out NI is abolished from 6 April 2016. The rate of employers NI will be affected and the impact on employees who contribute to a pension scheme. No NI rebate therefore a higher amount of NI contributions will be due. More information can be found using the following links:
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The Trade Union Bill removes the right for employees to have TU deductions made from their salaries. The Trade Union Bill hasn’t gone through parliament yet but it is in the pipe line.
EMSS are looking for service feedback from people who buy into the service and a questionnaire will be sent out after half term.
Schools/academies timesheet solution – we are investigating how we can make this process easier, some tips from our initial findings:-
- You are only required to complete costing for casuals, many schools are completing costing for all data entry lines which is not necessary
- If you require a refreshed timesheet due to staff changes, just ask your day to day payroll contact
- The timesheet should be set up to scroll down and across with the names and headings still visible against your data entry, if it is not, please ask your payroll contact to set this up for you in a refreshed document
- There is no need to print the document for audit purposes, this was checked out with audit over a year ago and a saved electronic version meets audit requirements
If you have any questions please contact:
Emma Gibson – ESC Manager (0116 3057503)
Wendy Potter – Service Delivery Manager Payroll (0116 3057718)
Emma Sutton – Service Delivery Manager HR (0116 3052015)
For general enquiries please contact the service desk on 0300 3030 222 or email / Emma Gibson
11 / HR Advisory
Jacqui Armand is covering Kirsty whilst she is off on maternity leave.
The next HR Advisory customers’ newsletter is due to go out late February. If customers would like to contribute anything please contact Carol.
The terms and conditions consultation will affect NCC contract employees.
There will be some minor changes to the recruitment and selection guidance after half term. Please note the latest documents can be found on the extranet.
A new website is being developed by the Education team and is intended to go live soon.
Difficult conversations training for leadership teams are available and it has been suggested that it is very useful for performance management. If anyone is interested please contact the schools advisory service. ‘Brilliant and very adaptive piece of training for school leaders. Thank you very much.’ (Nottingham Headteacher).
Contact Schools Advisory Service 0115 876 2000 or email / Carol McCrone and Jacqui Armand
12 / AOB
No other AOB was recorded / ALL
13 / Thank you and close / Mick Evans
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