Management Information Sheet

The 'Green Book' pay deal

To help address the National Minimum Wage pressures the 2022-23 National Joint Council for Local Government Services (the Green Book), the 2022 pay deal included the removal of Spinal Column Point (SCP) 1 from the national pay spine with effect from 1 April 2023.

NCC salary scales

Norfolk County Council (NCC) uses the national salary points to make up its salary grades from Scale A to J, originally agreed through the Modern Reward Agreement. Locally set pay points are used for Scales K and above.

Local implementation of the removal of SCP 1 from the national pay spine requires an adjustment to NCC's salary scales because Scale A is a single point scale and SCP1 cannot be removed without adjusting Scale A in some way.

Staff impacted

NCC salary scales apply to support staff in schools who are employed under 'Green Book' conditions.

The agreed solution

Several options were considered for removal of SCP1 from the NCC salary points and the agreed solution is set out in the table below:

Explanation of the table:

• Scale A uses SCP 2.
• Scale B uses SCP 3.
• Scale C reduces from two pay points (SCP 3 and 4) to one (SCP 4) meaning people in scale C start on a higher salary but still do not progress beyond SCP 4
• No other salary scales are impacted

This solution means that NCC retains existing scales and use of the national pay spine points, and current grade differential between reporting lines can be maintained (for example where schools employ cleaners at Scale A whose work is overseen by a Senior Cleaner or Assistant Caretaker at Scale B).

The change to the pay structure has been agreed with the unions recognised by NCC (Unison, Unite and GMB).

This change is a direct action to ensure compliance with the removal of SCP 1 from the national pay spine.

The impact on me

All Support staff in schools will remain on the same grades, however, as of 1 April 2023:

• Support staff on grade A, SCP 1 will be moved to SCP 2.
• Support staff on grade B, SCP 2 will be moved to SCP 3.
• Support staff on grade C, SCP 3 will be moved to SCP 4.

Impact on schools and academies

The NCC salary scales apply to support staff in Norfolk maintained schools and the changes will therefore be automatically applied to them.

Some academies use the NCC salary scales so will need to decide whether to use the revised scales or do something different. There may be some obligation in relation to TUPE protected staff in academies. Those academies who buy the EducationHR HR Administration service will be contacted separately regarding this.

EducationHR customers

For EducationHR customers, they won't be issuing an individual letter to every affected member of staff, but they have drafted a letter which can be passed to colleagues to explain the adjustment, and this can be found on InfoSpace at 2022 Green Book pay award supplementary changes letter L206 (Infospace).

Schools and Academies using Education Finance Budget Planner Toolkit

Schools and academies who buy the budget planner toolkit via Education Finance will see the above changes automatically applied to their staffing forecasts. No manual intervention from schools will be necessary. This will be implemented once the year end functionality is actioned.