SCHOOLS FORUM
Meeting date:
From:
8th April 2014
Caroline Sutton
Assistant Director – Schools & Learning
VOLUNTARY REDUNDANCY POLICY
1.0
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1
As a consequence of financial challenges and falling rolls, the Schools
Forum agreed a Voluntary Redundancy Policy for schools which came
into effect 1 April 2011. The current policy document is set out at
Appendix 1.
This policy document is found to have some
inconsistencies with the County Council policy on voluntary
redundancy.
To ensure equitable treatment between all staff,
amendments have been made to the policy to ensure it is consistent
with the County Council policy. The amended policy document is
found at Appendix 2.
1.2
This paper also clarifies that with immediate effect, the Local Authority
will no longer fund ill-health retirements or compulsory redundancies
in schools. This ensures consistency of treatment with the individual
directorates in the County Council, which must bear these costs.
1.3
The Schools Forum is asked to approve the revised Voluntary
Redundancy policy and to note the Council’s decision not to fund illhealth retirements or compulsory redundancies in schools with
immediate effect.
2.0
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS
2.1
The voluntary redundancy policy for schools and pupil referral units by
enabling schools to better manage their resources impacts onto the
following objective in the Council Plan:

To safeguard children and ensure that Cumbria is a great place to
be a child and grow up.
2.2
The policy supports the Council’s underpinning aim to ensure that
financial resources are used as effectively and efficiently as possible
to deliver the Council’s priorities within its Council Plan.
3.0
RECOMMENDATION
3.1
It is recommended that the Schools Forum approve the revised
Voluntary Redundancy policy at Appendix 2 which ensures
consistency with the County Council policy.
3.2
The Schools Forum is asked to note the Council’s decision not to fund
ill-health retirements and compulsory redundancies in schools with
immediate effect.
4.0
BACKGROUND
4.1
The Voluntary Redundancy Policy for schools (Appendix 1), as approved by
the Schools Forum, came into effect from 1 April 2011. The latest revision
to the policy was approved by the Schools Forum in March 2013.
4.2
The policy is supported by a Redundancies budget. This budget is funded
by the Dedicated Schools Grant. For 2014/15, the budget is £606,000.
4.3
A review of the policy has identified that it is currently inconsistent with the
County Council policy for voluntary redundancies.
4.4
To ensure consistency with the County Council policy and equitable
treatment by all Council and school staff, the policy has been updated as
follows:
1. The policy now incorporates pupil referral units as these have delegated
budgets and are treated like schools.
2. A value for money assessment has been incorporated at 4.2.2 as a
condition for eligibility. The voluntary redundancy request form has been
updated to include a value for money assessment which the requesting
school must complete. The value for money assessment, which will be
reviewed and verified by the Local Authority, must demonstrate that the
cost of termination is recoverable within three years of the employee’s
termination date.
3. At 4.2.4 of the policy an extra condition for funding redundancy has been
included to state that redundancy will not be funded where any of the
requirements of the policy set out in 4.2.1 to 4.2.3 and in 6.1 to 6.4 have
not been completed/met.
4. The redundancy payment has been revised to be consistent with the
County Council redundancy payment rates. This is outlined in Section 5
of the updated policy (at Appendix 2).
5. The policy now outlines at Section 8 – Staff Responsibility: that
employees accepting voluntary redundancy will not be permitted to take
up employment with the same employer until the value for money
business case has been repaid.
Any employees who do take up
employment with the same employer or another employer as included on
the Redundancy payment (Continuity of Employment in Local
Government etc) (Modification) (Amendment) Order 2002 and who
commence the employment before the timescale that is required to repay
the value for money business case will be required to repay all sums
outlaid related to the voluntary redundancy scheme before continuous
service will be reinstated.
4.5
The current Voluntary Redundancy Policy states that there can be no
overspend on the budget. This stems from previous years where there have
been significant overspends on the budget. Budgetary control for the
voluntary redundancy budget is challenging due to the final panel of the year
taking place in January, with this panel often receiving the highest number of
applications (due to voluntary redundancy taking effect from the start of the
next academic year). Expenditure on redundancy must be accounted for at
the point of the decision rather than when the redundancy actually takes
effect, or payment is made. The statement in the policy that there can be
no overspend on the budget has been removed. A clause has been
included at section 4.1 that where an overspend is unavoidable (due to
submitted cases robustly meeting all the criteria), any overspend must be
funded from elsewhere in the Dedicated Schools Grant budget and Panel
members must have due regard to the impact of this on all schools.
4.6
The Local Authority has decided that to ensure consistency with the
approach within the Council, for maintained schools, where the Council is
the employer, ill-health retirements and compulsory redundancies in schools
will be funded in the same way as for Council directorates, with schools
bearing the full cost of these. This will apply with immediate effect. There
will be no retrospective payments. Schools will be informed of this through a
letter issued via the Schools Portal.
4.7
The Council proposes an amendment to the Control of Surplus Balances
policy to enable ‘evidenced, known, future expenditure on voluntary
redundancies (not eligible through the voluntary redundancy policy),
compulsory redundancies and ill-health retirements in the following financial
year’ to be a specific purpose for which an excess surplus can be retained.
If approved by the Schools Forum, this amended policy will take immediate
effect.
5.0
OPTIONS
5.1
Schools Forum must decide on one of the following options:

Approve the updated Voluntary Redundancy policy which
ensures consistency with the County Council Voluntary
Redundancy policy. The policy will take immediate effect.

Not approve the updated Voluntary Redundancy policy and
suggest alternative amendments.
5.2
Schools Forum is asked to note the County Council decision not to
fund ill-health retirements and compulsory redundancies in schools
with immediate effect.
6.0
RESOURCE AND VALUE FOR MONEY IMPLICATIONS
6.1
The Redundancies budget for 2014/15 is £606,000 as agreed by the
Schools Forum in January 2014.
7.0
CONCLUSION
7.1
This paper presents an updated Voluntary Redundancy policy to the Schools
Forum for approval. The amendments to the policy ensure consistency with
the County Council’s Voluntary Redundancy policy. The Schools Forum is
asked to approve the updated policy.
7.2
The paper also informs the Schools Forum of the Council’s decision not to
fund compulsory redundancies or ill-health retirements in schools, to ensure
consistency with the approach in the Council.
Caroline Sutton
Assistant Director – Schools & Learning
26th March 2014
Accompanying Documents:
Appendix 1 – Voluntary Redundancy Procedure – Revised March 2013
Appendix 2 - Voluntary Redundancy Procedure – Revised March 2014
REPORT AUTHOR
Contact:
Helen Hamilton
Finance Manager – Schools and Learning
Email: helen.hamilton@cumbria.gov.uk
Telephone: 01228 221196