SHROPSHIRE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICES EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT 1996

Transcription

1 SHROPSHIRE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE S SERVICES EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT 1996 STATEMENT OF WRITTEN PARTICULARS FOR TEACHING STAFF IN SCHOOLS WITH DELEGATED MANAGEMENT (Your letter of appointment forms part of the Written Statement of Particulars and both should therefore be read together as a single document) 1. GENERAL Your appointment is subject to the provisions contained in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document, the Conditions of Service for School Teachers in England and Wales (The Burgundy Book), and for schools with delegated management the Authority s Scheme for the Local Management of Schools and Personnel Handbook as amended from time to time. During your employment you will also be subject to the regulations and agreements as adopted by the Authority and the School s Instrument of Government. Copies of the documents relating to your conditions are held in the school and in the Human Resources Section of the Children and Young People s Directorate, The Guildhall, Shrewsbury (hereafter referred to as Children and Young People s Human Resources Section) and are available for your inspection. From time to time, variations in your terms and conditions of employment will result from negotiations and agreement with the specified union or unions, and these will be separately notified to you or otherwise incorporated in the documents to which you have reference. The Authority undertakes to ensure that future changes in these terms will be entered in these documents, or otherwise recorded for you to refer to, within one month of the change. The current principal conditions are set out in this statement and the associated letter of appointment. For any subsequent amendments to these particulars, please refer to the agreements mentioned in this paragraph. 2. PENSION ARRANGEMENTS Your post carries eligibility to join the Teachers Pension Scheme, a contributory scheme administered by Teachers Pensions, located at Mowden Hall, Darlington. The benefits of the scheme are governed by the Teachers Pensions Regulations 1997 (as amended). Alternatively, you may take out a personal pension plan or pay additional contributions towards your State Pension provision. Membership of the Teachers Pension Scheme is automatic and contributions are deducted from salary until such time that the Authority receives notification from Teachers Pensions that an election to opt out of the Scheme has been made. Teachers wishing to opt out should contact the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section or Teachers Pensions direct for the relevant application form. Teachers who take up an appointment having already elected to opt out of the Teachers Pension Scheme should contact the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section to ensure that contributions are not deducted from their salary. NB: Part-time Teachers p-sw73lo 1

2 Up until 1 January 2007 part time teachers wishing to join the pension scheme had to make a formal election to do so. From 1 January 2007 however, membership of the scheme is automatic for any teacher taking up a new part-time teaching post or any part-time teacher whose employment contract is subject to amendment. Part-time teachers who take up a new appointment or have a change of contract and who do not wish to contribute to the scheme must formally opt out. They should therefore contact either the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section or Teachers Pensions direct for the relevant form. Teachers who find from their payslip that they have not paid pension contributions when expected, or are paying contributions when this is not their wish, are asked to immediately notify Children and Young People s Human Resources Section. For employees new to the profession full details of the Scheme can be found in the enclosed guidance booklet. Contact point for Teachers Pensions Tel: Website: (all forms and the guidance booklet are available for download from the site) 3. PAYMENT OF SALARY Your salary is determined under the provisions of the Schoolteachers Pay and Conditions Document and is as set out in your letter of appointment. Details of the salary scales, allowances and other payment arrangements covered by the Document are contained within the Personnel Handbook referred to in paragraph 1. Your salary will be paid in monthly instalments by credit transfer direct to your bank/building society account. A teacher should receive not less than one-third of a year s salary for each full term s service in any school maintained by Children and Young People s Services. For the purpose of these arrangements the three terms in each year shall be constituted as follows:- The Summer Term from 1 May to 31 August: The Autumn Term from 1 September to 31 December: The Spring Term from 1 January to 30 April. All teachers resigning their appointment: (a) (b) (c) at the end of the Summer Term will be paid salary to 31 August;* at the end of the Autumn Term will be paid salary to 31 December; at the end of the Spring Term will be paid salary to 30 April.* * If, however, you resign to take up an appointment with another authority or governing body you will be paid to the date preceding the day on which the school to which you are appointed opens if this be earlier than the 1 May or 1 September. Newly appointed teachers taking up work either on first appointment or on transfer from another authority or governing body:- p-sw73lo 2

3 (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) After the Summer vacation will be paid salary from 1 September or the first school day if this is earlier. After the Christmas vacation will be paid salary from 1 January. After the Easter vacation will be paid salary from 1 May, or the first school day if this is earlier. During term will be paid from the first working day. 4. CONTINUOUS SERVICE Your period of continuous service dates from the date of your commencement of employment with Shropshire Council as detailed in your letter of appointment except where periods of previous service with this and other local authorities and related employers may be allowed to count as continuous employment for specified purposes in the scheme of Conditions of Service. Previous continuous service with other local authorities and related employers specified in Redundancy Payments (Local Government) (Modification) Order 1983 will count for the purpose of determining continuous service for the calculation of redundancy payments sickness allowances and maternity leave, subject to the provisions of the Order. 5. GRIEVANCE AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES (i) (ii) If you have a grievance relating to your employment, you have a right to express it and the procedure will be found in the Personnel Handbook referred to in paragraph 1. A copy of the disciplinary procedure applicable to you, agreed between the Authority and recognised Teacher Associations, is included within the Personnel Handbook referred to in paragraph MEMBERSHIP OF A TRADE UNION The Authority, as your employer, supports the system of collective bargaining in every way and believes in principle of solving industrial relations problems by discussion and agreement. For practical purposes, this can only be conducted by representatives of the employers and the employees. If collective bargaining of this kind is to continue and improve for the benefit of both, it is essential that the employees organisation should be fully representative. Your Authority is associated with other local authorities represented on the Association of County Councils and it is equally sensible for you to be in membership of one of the recognised teachers organisations. You have the right to join a trade union and to take part in its activities. Details of the recognised teachers organisations are available for you to refer to at your school or in the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section. 7. PROVISIONS FOR MATERNITY, PATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE Both the Conditions of Service referred to in paragraph 1 above and the statutory Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 contain provisions for female employees rights to maternity leave and maternity pay. All teachers have a minimum entitlement to 26 weeks leave. Details of maternity benefits are available p-sw73lo 3

4 from the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section and, if pregnant, you are required to enquire about your rights no later than 14 weeks before your expected week of confinement and preferably earlier. For male employees the Employment Act 2002 introduced an entitlement to 2 weeks paternity leave and paternity pay in respect of a child born from 6 April 2003 onwards subject to having 26 weeks service. Further details of the scheme and the policy operated by the Authority are available from the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section. Under the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 an employee who has at least one year s continuous service with their employer, is entitled to take up to 13 weeks unpaid leave, up until the date of their child s fifth birthday, for the purpose of caring for their child or making arrangements for their child s welfare. This provision applies separately to both parents of the child. The Authority has adopted a parental leave scheme which applies to all employees, irrespective of length of service, and any application for leave must be in accordance with the scheme, details of which are currently available from the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section. 8. CODE OF CONDUCT In order that staff are aware of the standards of conduct expected of them the Authority has produced a Professional Code of Conduct for Staff Working in Schools. A copy of the Code will have been included with your letter of appointment. Staff should familiarise themselves with the content of the Code which may be used as a point of reference in the handling of matters of conduct including those which may be subject to action under the disciplinary procedure. 9. PERIOD OF NOTICE TO TERMINATE EMPLOYMENT (ON EITHER SIDE) (a) (b) Heads Engagements are terminable by three calendar months notice terminating at the end of a school term as defined above. Other teaching staff (including Deputy Heads) Engagements are terminable by two calendar months notice terminating at the end of a school term as defined above. NOTE:- Where the date of termination of notice under (a) or (b) is 31 August, an additional month s notice will be required. 10. RETIREMENT In accordance with the Council s policy your employment is not subject to a mandatory retirement age and you are able to continue to work beyond the age of 65. Any employee s continued employment, at any time, should be on the basis that they are fit to continue to meet the requirements of the post and the Governing Body may refer to the Authority s Occupational Health Unit for consideration and advice the position of any employee where there are grounds to question their medical fitness. 11. PROBATION p-sw73lo 4

5 The service of teachers taking up their first appointment is subject to a period of probation. For teachers qualifying in the summer of 1999 or thereafter this will be in accordance with statutory induction arrangements, the period for which is generally three school terms (or equivalent for part time teachers). Further details will be provided to those teachers to whom a period of probation/induction applies. 12. SICK PAY SCHEME - COVERING ABSENCE FROM DUTY OWING TO ILLNESS, INJURY OR OTHER DISABILITY (i) Application of Scheme The Scheme shall apply to all teachers. (ii) Scale of Payment Subject to the provision of this Scheme (see paragraph 13) a teacher absent from duty owing to his illness (which term is deemed to include injury or other disability) shall be entitled to receive in any period of one year an allowance in accordance with the following scale:- During the first year of service: full pay for 25 working days and, after completing four calendar month s service, half pay for 50 working days. During the second year of service: full pay for 50 working days and half pay for 50 days. During the third year of service: full pay for 75 working days and half pay for 75 working days. During the fourth and successive yeas, full pay for 100 working days and half pay for 100 working days. This scale is to be regarded as a minimum and the Governing Body has discretion to extend its application in any individual case. For the purpose of this scheme service includes all aggregated teaching service with one or more local authorities. 13. SICK PAY SCHEME - CONDITIONS (i) (ii) For the purposes of this scheme a teacher shall be under an obligation to declare to that satisfaction of the Authority his/her entitlement to benefit under the foregoing acts ((ii) above) and any subsequent alteration in the circumstances on which such entitlement is based, in default of which the Authority shall be entitled to determine the benefit by reference to the maximum benefit obtainable. A teacher who is absent for more than three school days owing to personal illness shall submit such statements as the Authority in their discretion shall require provided that doctors statement shall not be required, save in special circumstances, more frequently than on the eighth day of absence, at the end of each month of absence and on return to duty on the date specified on the previous doctor s statement. In the case of a prolonged or frequent absence a teacher may be required at any time to submit to examination by an p-sw73lo 5

6 approved medical practitioner. The teacher s own doctor may be present at such examination on the teacher s request. (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) A teacher entering hospital or similar institution shall submit a doctor s statement on entry and on discharge in substitution for periodic statements. In the case of absence due to accident attested by an approved medical practitioner to have arisen out of and in the course of the teacher s employment, including attendance for instruction at physical training or other classes organised or approved by the authority or participation in any extra curricular or voluntary activity connected with the school, full pay shall in all cases be allowed, such pay being sick pay for the purposes of paragraph 12 above, subject to the production of self-certificates and/or doctors statements from the day of the accident up to the date of recovery, but not exceeding six calendar months, after which the case will be reviewed before a decision on any extension of the period of sick pay should be reached. Absence resulting from such accidents shall not be reckoned against the teacher s entitlement to sick leave under 12(ii) above, though such absences are reckonable for entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay. When the approved medical practitioner attests that there is evidence to show a reasonable probability that an absence was due to an infectious or contagious illness contracted directly in the course of the teacher s employment full pay shall be allowed for such period of absence as maybe authorised by the approved medical practitioner to be due to the illness, and such absence shall not be reckoned against the teacher s entitlement to sick leave under 12(ii) above though such absences are reckonable for entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay. Where the absence is attested by the approved medical practitioner to be due to pulmonary tuberculosis and the teacher carries out an approved course of treatment full salary shall be paid in respect of the first twelve calendar months of the period of absence after attestation and further full or half-pay shall be allowed at the discretion of the Authority. A teacher residing in a house in which some other person is suffering from in infectious disease shall at once notify the Corporate Director - Children and Young People s Services and the teacher shall, if required, take such precautions as may be prescribed, provided that if in the opinion of the approved medical practitioner it is considered inadvisable, notwithstanding such precautions for such teacher to attend duty, full pay shall be allowed during any enforced absence from duty, such pay being sick pay for the purpose of paragraph 12 above. This provision will also apply where, in the opinion of an approved medical practitioner it is inadvisable for a teacher to attend duty for precautionary reasons due to infectious disease in the workplace. The period of absence under this paragraph shall not be reckoned against the teacher s entitlement to sick leave under 12(ii) above, though such absences are reckonable for entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay. If the absence of a teacher is occasioned by the actionable negligence of a third party in respect of which damages are recoverable, he/she shall advise the Authority forthwith and it shall be competent to the Authority to require the teacher to refund a sum equal to the aggregate of sick pay paid to him/her during the period of disability or such part thereof as is deemed appropriate but not exceeding the amount of damages recovered. In the event of the claim for damages being settled on a proportionate basis, the Authority will p-sw73lo 6

7 (ix) (x) require full details and will determine the actual proportion of sick pay to be refunded by the teacher. If the Authority are of the opinion that the disability which has occasioned the teacher s absence from work is due to his/her misconduct, or if the teacher has failed to observe the conditions of this scheme, or has been guilty of conduct prejudicial to his/her recovery, the payment of any sick pay under the scheme may be suspended by the Authority. In any such case the Authority shall inform the teacher of the grounds upon which the payment of sick pay has been suspended. He/she will then be given an opportunity of submitting his/her observations and to a personal hearing (accompanied by a representative if he/she so wishes). The Authority, in consultation with the governing body, shall thereupon decide whether the disability was due to the misconduct of the teacher or that he/she has failed without reasonable cause to observe the conditions of the scheme, or has been guilty of conduct prejudicial to his/her recovery, in which case the teacher shall forfeit his/her right to any payment or further payment of sick pay in respect of that period of absence. Sick pay shall not be paid in a case of accident due to active participation in sport as a profession unless the Authority decide otherwise, though Statutory Sick Pay may be payable. 14. THE POSITIONS OF LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES AS EMPLOYERS ARISING FROM THE GOVERNMENT S SCHEME TO COMPENSATE VICTIMS OF CRIMES OF VIOLENCE Where a teacher is absent from work because of injury in respect of which a claim will lie to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and the teacher is otherwise qualified to receive sick pay, such sick pay shall be disbursed to him/her without his/her being required to refund any proportion of it from the sum which the Compensation Board may award; and where an award has been made by the Compensation Board employing authorities should be free to discount wholly or partly the period of sick leave occasioned by the injury in calculating the teacher s entitlement to pay as they may see fit on consideration of all the material circumstances. 15. LEAVE OF ABSENCE Since the implementation of the Education (School Teachers Pay and Conditions of Employment) Order 1987 a teacher must be available for work for 195 days in any school year. It has, however, been accepted that there are occasions when it is reasonable to allow teachers time off from their duties. Details of the circumstances in which teachers may be allowed to take leave of absence and the procedures for applying for leave are set out in the Personnel Handbook referred to in paragraph 1, as adopted by the Governing Body. 16. OUTSIDE INTERESTS You should not undertake any other duties or activities which, in the opinion of the Governing Body or the Authority, would interfere with the efficient discharge of your duties in the school. 17. GENERAL TEACHING COUNCIL FOR ENGLAND p-sw73lo 7

8 Since 1 June 2001 there has been a legal requirement for qualified teachers employed in maintained schools to be registered with the General Teaching Council for England. Registration with the GTC is therefore a condition of your appointment and the Authority will undertake a check with the GTC in order that your registration is confirmed. The School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document currently has provision for the annual payment of a GTC Fee Allowance with a teacher s salary. The Authority also has a responsibility to comply with any arrangements required by the GTC for a fee deduction from salary. 18. HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY Copies of the Health and Safety Policy commended by the Council and adopted by the Governing Body are available in schools for inspection. All staff share a responsibility for their own health and safety, and that of others, and should be aware of and follow the policies and procedures adopted by the school. 19. WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY AND PROCEDURE In line with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and the Authority s commitment to the highest possible standards of openness, probity and accountability, a Whistleblowing Policy and Procedure has been adopted for all employees of the Council. A copy of the Policy and Procedure is included in the Personnel Handbook referred to in paragraph 1. Alternatively copies are available from the Children and Young People s Human Resources Section. 20. MEDICAL EXAMINATION All teachers newly appointed to the Authority are required to complete and return to the Occupational Health Physician an occupational health questionnaire. In the event of an unsatisfactory report being received it may be necessary to terminate your employment in accordance with the powers delegated to the Authority under the provisions of the School Standards and Framework Act SMOKING AT WORK POLICY The Council s policy is that, for reasons relating to health and safety, smoking is not permitted in any Council building. This policy has been extended to include schools. Employees are also not permitted to smoke in the presence of young people whilst working off-site. 22. NATIONAL FRAUD INITIATIVE Along with other public bodies, Shropshire Council co-operates with the National Fraud Initiative introduced by the Government. This aims to promote the best use of public money by detecting and reducing fraud wherever possible. As part of this p-sw73lo 8

9 initiative, and as a condition of service, the Authority will from time to time supply payroll details to the Audit Commission to be matched against other information supplied to it. All data under these arrangements would be dealt with in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. Further information can be obtained from the Council s Audit and Consultancy Division, Shirehall, Shrewsbury (Tel: Shrewsbury ). (April 2009) p-sw73lo 9