Use of Teaching Supply Staff
North Lanarkshire Council · 18 May 2023
Back to Audit and Scrutiny Panel — 18 May 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Audit and Scrutiny Panel Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref AH/FW Date 17/04/23 Use of Teaching Supply Staff From Fiona Whittaker, Chief Officer People Resources E-mail whittakerf@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Executive Summary The audit exercise carried out regarding short and long term supply teaching staff was undertaken to provide assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s key controls and management arrangements associated with ensuring that teaching supply staff are recruited and employed in a manner consistent with the Council’s legal obligations, the approved Devolved School Management scheme and the Council’s Financial Regulations and corporate budget monitoring and control arrangements. The work was designed to offer an opinion on the following: (1) Are supply staff being recruited, employed and paid in accordance with key legal obligations and corporate expectations? (2) Is there appropriate and effective monitoring and oversight of how schools utilise supply staff to ensure that any risks arising from the use of such staff are appropriately managed? Although satisfied that supply staff are being recruited and paid in accordance with legislation, SNCT guidelines and corporate expectations, concerns were raised due to the retirement of aspects of the SEEMIS system impacting on the many of the key processes used for managing and monitoring the use of supply teachers. Section 3 of the audit report highlighted the specific concerns required to be addressed by People Resources in conjunction with the Education and Families service. To address these concerns an agreed action plan has now been put in place with appropriate timelines for completion from February 2023 to December 2023. The plan captures the complex iTrent system development works to be undertaken and the consultation with Teaching Trade Unions required to address the concerns highlighted in regard to the issuing of Contracts of Employment beyond 2 days in line with SNCT guidelines. To date a process to reclaim the overpayments highlighted in the report due to duplicate entries for payment being submitted and actioned has now been agreed and a reminder has been issued to all council staff including Headteachers of the requirement to ensure all claims for payment are accurately and fully completed prior to submission for authorisation and follow on processing.
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1. Background 1.1 An audit was undertaken to provide assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s key controls and management arrangements associated with ensuring that teaching supply staff are recruited and employed in a manner consistent with the Council’s legal obligations, the approved Devolved School Management scheme and the Council’s Financial Regulations and corporate budget monitoring and control arrangements. For staffing matters, the Council is required to adhere to the SNCT and LNCT Agreements which outline the legal obligations for the recruitment, employment and payment of teachers. 1.2 Although satisfied that supply staff were being recruited and paid in accordance with legislation, SNCT guidelines and corporate expectations, their was highlighted as follows a requirement for improvement in the management arrangements surrounding the Council’s use of short and long term supply teachers: There is a lack of clearly documented guidance and appropriate processes around the management of short-term supply teachers; Processes for the oversight of the use and payment of supply teachers need strengthened; The short and long term supply information, including the current supply register list and the timescales and notification requirements have been individually issued to all Headteachers. The register will be updated and re-issued on a quarterly basis, until an IT system process is fully developed that can allow continuous access via iTrent. Actions identified around financial management are being progressed by Financial Solutions. The Service has undertaken recruitment to all vacant AFA posts. Intensive support, training and mentoring continues to be offered to the AFA cohort. A programme of actions has been rolled out to AFAs and other relevant Financial Solutions staff detailing how the 2 current significant accounting tasks (Year-end accounts & creation of new year budgets) will be completed/managed. The People Resources team continue to work closely with both Financial Solutions and Education and Families colleagues on an ongoing basis to minimise all risks, including those highlighted in the audit report due to the limited available IT system solutions. Recommendations It is recommended that the panel: 1) Acknowledge the progress already undertaken by People Resources to date. 2) Endorse the timescales for the identified actions to be undertaken. 3) Note the challenges regarding iTrent System development The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve North Lanarkshire's resource base Ambition statement (23) Build a workforce for the future capable of delivering on our priorities and shared ambition
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Several errors and duplicate entries were identified in payments made to short- term supply teachers; and There is a need to continue to progress identified actions around financial management. 1.3 The following information provides an update on the current position on addressing these concerns. 2. Report 2.1 Although accepted that the People Resources Business Partners aligned to the Education and Families service, met regularly with Headteachers, including undertaking twice yearly formal workforce staffing/planning review meetings, during which time the process for the use of short and long term supply teachers is discussed and staffing data collated, it was felt that these specific requirements would be enhanced if written documentation was issued individually to Headteachers for ongoing reference and also published on the Council’s MyNL website alongside other People Resources information for transparency and ease of reference. The individual email has now been issued to Headteachers specifying the above requirements with work currently ongoing for the publishing on MyNL and anticipated to be concluded for the beginning of new school term. 2.2 In order to accommodate the SNCT requirements regarding the issuing of employment contracts for short term supply work beyond 2 working days, an automated system solution is required. This is currently being scoped via ITrent regarding viability. To address the immediate position, discussions are being held with the Teacher trade unions to secure a local agreement for a manual process that is achievable given the volume of Contracts of Employment that require to be issued due to the short term nature of supply cover arrangements. 2.3 Going forward an automated system is required to provide wider oversight for the monitoring and management of the use of short term supply teachers by both Headteachers and Education and Families Managers. It is anticipated that development work on iTrent would allow an appropriate reporting mechanism to be made available that would cover the above but also the challenges faced regarding the issuing of the volume of short term supply employment contracts. In the immediate term, reports can be run providing information on current short and long term supply teachers in post, although this provides limited data in relation to Teachers undertaking short term supply work across different schools. The scoping work for an automated system via iTrent is currently ongoing. The timescale for this work to be concluded is December 2023 at the earliest. 2.4 The audit highlighted a number of duplicate errors and duplicate entries in payments made to short-term supply teachers. The iTrent system used for all payments to staff currently does not have the functionality to prevent duplicate claims being made and this would require recurring investment in the region of £60K for further development of the system. 2.5 All employees, including Teachers, have been reminded of their personal responsibility when making financial claims to ensure submissions are completed fully and accurately and that they should take all necessary precautions to not make duplicate claims.
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2.6 Managers, including Headteachers have been reminded of the requirement to ensure all claims are accurately and fully completed prior to submission for authorisation and follow-on processing. 2.7 In the short term until an iTrent solution is in place, the Employee Service Centre will check for duplicate claims and address these with relevant Head Teachers and employees, raising awareness of the process and ensuring these claims are not paid, avoiding an overpayment situation. 2.8 Due to the extent and labour-intensive process required to ensure that all claims made are singular, a review is currently being undertaken by Education and Families in conjunction with Support Services (People Resources and Financial Solutions) to consider the most appropriate way to assist Headteachers to monitor and manage the use and payment of temporary teachers. It is anticipated that a retrospective report-based process will be consistently implemented across the school estate to assist in this requirement. 2.9 The list of duplicate payments/errors has now been reviewed and a process for the recovery of monies and corrective action put in place. 2.10 Actions identified around financial management are being progressed by Financial Solutions. The Service has undertaken recruitment to all vacant AFA posts. Intensive support, training and mentoring continues to be offered to the AFA cohort. A programme of actions has been rolled out to AFAs and other relevant Financial Solutions staff detailing how the 2 current significant accounting tasks (Year-end accounts & creation of new year budgets) will be completed/managed. 3. Measures of success 3.1 The measures of success will include: - Reduction and ultimately eradication of duplicate claims - Increased awareness of Employee and Head Teacher responsibilities with regards to payment submissions and authorisations. - Wider visibility of supply teacher register and compliance with employment contract legislation. 4. Supporting documentation N/A Fiona Whittaker Chief Officer People Resources
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Staff may require time off to attend learning events 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi?
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Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Limited Itrent system development Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? If an automated system is not able to be invested in or developed their remains the risk of limited wider visibility of the use of short term supply staff across the council. Due to the limited functionality of iTrent regarding duplicate payments and the cost involved to remedy this, there is a continued risk that duplicate claims will be progressed. 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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