Modern Reward Strategy - What Has Happened Over the Summer?

Thank you
First of all we would like to thank you, and your staff who were involved, for the tremendous efforts made towards the schools data checking exercise which took place before the end of last term. This was a huge success at a very busy time for schools, but has helped enormously with the quality of our data.

Changes to the MRS timescales
Before the summer holidays we sent a Bulletin to schools for Headteachers and all schools support staff, which outlined the steps that would be taken over the summer. This communication confirmed what we had said in our June newsletter, that all staff would be informed of the outcomes of MRS in September with the implementation being phased towards the end of the year.

We had a large enough quantity of job evaluation results in July and August to be able to begin our final quality checking process. Once we started we began to see more clearly the patterns of evaluations across the authority in a way that had not previously been possible. This quality checking process involves looking at all schools' and departments' evaluations from top to bottom, checking evaluations across the organisation. This rigorous quality checking process is needed in order to be able to write individual letters to over 20,000 post holders including over 8,500 in schools.

It has become clear that this is a huge task. We are putting all our efforts into quality checking all our evaluations and to help us we have engaged one of the country's leading Hay consultants and two experts from councils that have successfully implemented their equal pay reviews.

Both the management and trade unions believe it is vital to achieve the best quality results possible and it's necessary to slip the timescales to achieve this.

What will this mean to schools and their support staff?
Please bear with us - support staff will not now receive letters in September, but we hope you will understand and support our desire to take time to achieve accuracy and quality rather than stick rigidly to deadlines. This will mean more robust results for all staff. Management and trade unions believe this is essential.

MRS newsletter 10 will put all schools support staff in the picture. Please ensure all those staff in your school have the opportunity to read the newsletter and raise any questions. Please also encourage staff to be pro-active and keep themselves up to date via the schools' MRS website. As ambassadors for the project your continued support is greatly appreciated.

The resulting change in the implementation of the project will mean that we will need to refresh our schools data in October / November to account for staffing changes since September, however, owing to the sterling work undertaken by schools and the Job Evaluation team in July we anticipate this will be a much smaller task.

You may be wondering how this change to time scales might affect your budget. The original 3% uplift to on costs for non-teaching staff plus the additional provision of 2% for 'back pay' means that there is a further 5% in the 07/08 budget to cover the costs of MRS. Children's Services Finance will give schools revised advice for 08/09 taking into consideration this pressure against other pressures. However, due to a change in the rules governing the management of schools budgets at year end, arrangements will be made for schools to carry forward the budget provision for 07/08 into 08/09 if MRS is not finalised by 31 March 2008. We will be able to inform you about the impact on your school's budget well in advance of individuals receiving their personal letters and a management tool will be provided by Children's services Finance to help you with your financial management.

What happens next?
MRS newsletter 10 informs staff about the changes to our timescales but some reassurance is given as some detail about the agreed position on salary protection arrangements is also included.

Negotiations will be concluded in the next few months and final cost modelling completed. A proposed package of pay and conditions will be agreed for consultation as previously outlined.

In this edition we have a message from Anne Gibson and Jonathan Dunning on time scales plus details on how pay protection will work for anyone whose pay is reduced as a result of MRS.

Headteachers please note that it is important to ensure that all of your non-teaching staff see these communications. Please make a hard copy, if necessary, for anyone who does not have easy access to email. Remember, you should be forwarding all MRS communications to any staff on maternity leave or sick leave and keeping any casual staff informed.

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