I am writing with details of the schedule of payroll deadlines for schools alongside some important information relating to these deadlines. We have recently introduced some new processes to our payroll processing to ensure we are better equipped to deliver pay changes relating to the implementation of MRS and to provide improved procedures for payroll checking.

We have identified the need for more robust checking of payrolls before the final processing run to reduce the number of errors and minimize the risk of overpayments. In order to achieve this additional checking we have had to lose some of our time for inputting changes and claims on the system. Therefore, we have had to change some of our deadlines for the receipt of information from schools with immediate effect.

Please use the following schedules to help you identify when you need to ensure payroll related information or claims are received within the ESC. We will write to you again in September with details of the deadlines for the next academic year.

Notification of Starters, Leavers, and Payroll Changes

You are requested to use the notification forms available, using your normal log-in, on the Norfolk Schools website in the Staff section of My School Admin to inform us of the above changes. These forms indicate all of the necessary information you need to provide us with. It is important you provide all the details requested as this will reduce the number of times we have to contact you with queries and thus minimise delays in getting salaries paid and contract documentation issued.

The usual deadline for receipt of these notifications is now the last working day of the month for changes affecting the following months pay. For example, if you have a person leaving on 11^th July you would need to inform us of this by 30^th June in order to prevent an overpayment of salary in July.

New Deadlines for Receipt in the ESC

Friday 30^th May
Monday 30^th June
Thursday 31^st July
Friday 29^th August

Forms must be authorised by the Headteacher and may be emailed to us using schoolsadmin.eps.edu@norfolk.gov.uk. Emails must be sent from the email account of the person authorised to sign the form, for schools this will generally be from the Headteacher's email account. This is equivalent to the authorised signature for audit purposes.

Please note that notifications which are incomplete or received after the deadline will result in changes not being actioned until the following month and could result in over or underpayments.

Please note that due to the extremely high volume of staffing changes in September we ask schools to let us know of as many changes as possible by 25^th July to ensure we are able to process these in time for the September payroll.

Supply Teaching Claims Deadlines and Payments

Supply Claim Period	Deadline for Receipt in ESC	Pay Date
1st - 30th May	2nd June	19th June
2nd - 30th June	2nd July	18th July
1st - 22nd July	31st July	19th August
1st - 29th August	2nd September	19th September

Travel/Overtime/Blue/Lilac and Letting Claims

Supply Claim Period	Deadline for Receipt in ESC	Pay Date - No Contract
20th April - 19th May	23rd May	3rd June
20th May - 19th June	23rd June	8th July
20th June - 18th July	23rd July	5th August
21st July - 19th August	22nd August	9th September

N.B. claims for people on contracts will be paid on the 19^th of the month.

You can help to reduce the amount of queries arising from claims by ensuring all types of claim forms are fully completed and signed by the authorising officer. Please note that we will continue to return any unsigned or incomplete claim forms to the school for authorisation and these will not be paid until the necessary information or authorisation has been completed. Claims may be emailed to us using schoolsadmin.eps.edu@norfolk.gov.uk. Emails must be sent from the email account of the person authorised to sign the form, for schools this will generally be from the Headteacher's email account. This is equivalent to the authorised signature for audit purposes.

Staff Returns

The green monthly staff return should only be used to record sickness absence and unpaid leave. The period covered by each return should be from 20^th of one month to the 19^th of the following month. The return should be sent in on the 19^th of the month to ensure that payroll deadlines are met.

You should also include the number of hours to be deducted for unpaid leave and the type of sickness absence. This will help us ensure pay is correct and give us better information on reports, it will also help reduce the number of queries we have on deductions for unpaid leave. Please note that you must not include details of leavers or new appointments on the Staff Return.

If you have any queries on any of the information in this MI sheet please speak to your Employee Support Officer in the first instance.

Originator/Contact: Ros Hill, Employee Services Centre
Telephone 01603 495822