Review of Trade Union De-Delegated Funding

Agenda Item 6

De-Delegation of Services• De-delegation applies only to maintained schools

• Where services are able to be de-delegated:o The budget is delegated to all schools and academies;o Services for de-delegation have to be approved by

Schools Forum (by maintained school representatives and by phase); and

o If approved the funding will be de-delegated (removed) from maintained school budgets by phase before the final budgets are set.

Purpose of Reviewa) To agree that the de-delegated funding for 2014-15 is still

applicable for 2015-16

b) To identify what has been delivered through the de-delegated funds

c) To review if the de-delegation should continue in 2015-16 and if so the amount per pupil that should be ‘charged’

Trade Union Duties 2014-15 Trade union duties has operated in 2013-14 and 2014-15 with a number of academies also contributing (at the same rate of £1.37 per pupil) to this activity.

This budget is used to reimburse for the salary costs of trade union officials.

In some instances the union official has no school responsibilities i.e. solely paid for trade union time.

The overall projected monitoring position (if no change is made to the de-delegation rate) and funded trade union officials is set out on the next slide.

Trade Union Duties – Budget Overview

Figures in £k 2014-15 2015-16 comment

Expenditure 113 123 Changed mix of staff/salaries

De-delegation (55) (50) Less maintained schools

Academies (24) (27) Assumed to increase, although conversions have slowed

Estimated shortfall 34 46

Designated union officers

1.1FTE NUT 0.7 FTE, NASUWT 0.4

Time allocation based on trade union membership

1.5FTE NUT 0.5 FTE, NASUWT 0.5 and UNISON 0.5 FTE

Trade Union Duties 2015-16Different options for 2015-16 exist as follows:

a) Continuing the existing contribution rate (£1.37 per pupil) – overspend would continue and the trade union support available would be adversely effected.

b) Increase the amount per pupil to £2.10 to bring the budget into balance with the forecast expenditure, maintaining existing support.

c) As the budget is used to fund staff costs one option is to increase the amount per pupil to reflect the inflation that has been applied to salary costs in recent years.

Trade Union Duties 2015-16At the 14th October meeting Forum members were advised to read the national guidance on this area and consult with their constituent schools so they were able to discuss at the 2nd December meeting and the maintained School Forum members vote.

The DfE guidance is - Advice on trade union facility time (January 2014)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/275690/advice_on_trade_union_facility_time_in_schools.pdf

DfE advice on trade union facility time (January 2014)

• All union representatives who receive facility time to represent members employed in schools should spend the majority of their working hours carrying out their main duties as school employees.

• Employers should ensure that spending on facility time is as efficient as possible.

• There should be full accountability and transparency on facility time given to trade unions.

Trade Union officials – Sept 14 onwards

Name Union SchoolsTrade Unions

duties FTE

comment

Karren Bennett Unison 0.5 Olympus Care Services

Elaine Coe NUT 0.2 CE Academy

Stuart Coe NUT 1.0 CE Academy

James Smith NASUWT 0.1 Boothville primary

Alan Hackett NASUWT 0.2 Campion school

Richard Kempa NASUWT 0.6 Prince William – predominantly this but also this term 1 day per week

teaching at Prince William

Continuing the de-delegation 15-16NCC does support the continuation of the de-delegation because it:•Enables the council on behalf of community schools to develop and consult once on HR policy for schools with trade unions, including head teacher reps;•Ensures that the council and schools meet their legal obligations to consult with employee representatives when schools transfer to Academy status;•Ensures that council employees in schools are able to access their legal right to representation in disciplinary, grievance, redundancy consultation and any other employment matters that might lead to dismissal.

Impact of no de-delegation 15-16The consequence of not having de-delegation approved is that:

•Every school would have to consult with all recognised trade unions in schools on policy issues – there are 8 unions and the pay policy is reviewed annually;

•Each school would have to develop their own agreement on working with trade unions and any collective approach would potentially be lost leading to increased time and effort from all concerned;

Impact of no de-delegation 15-16

•Each school would have to ensure that they had/ made arrangements to have access to a trade union representative for the trade union that the employee belonged to available to attend individual and collective processes as this is their legal right. If they did not have a rep based in their school they would have to give the employee the opportunity to find someone and regional officials would become unavailable due to volume and potentially slow processes down.

Trade Union Duties 2015-16Vote

To continue the trade union support arrangements and address the forecast budget shortfall the proposal is to de-delegate £2.10 per pupil for both the primary and secondary sectors.

Separate votes for the primary and secondary sectors are required.

Applies only to maintained schools.

Forum – members who can vote on this item – 1) maintained primary only and 2) maintained secondary only