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TLR's and R&R's restructure

Hi All,

Just wanted some advice on something I haven't had to do before, one of the schools I provide HR support to are currently looking at their TLR structures and Recruitment and Retention payments paid to staff, there is a need for the school to reduce its staffing budget.

After the headteacher (she took over recently) looked at the additional payments she noticed the following:

1) Some people were still be being paid for TLR's that they no longer do - this is straightforward, consult and then remove, with safeguarding OR, have a informal discussion with staff member to see if they were willing to just relinquish the TLR.

2) Some people were being paid a TLR for a role, the role has now reduced slightly hence the value of the TLR would be reduced, again i guess this would be consult and then amend  - i am assuming this would also be safeguarded?

3) Some people have been paid Recruitment and Retention Allowances, there's no paperwork for when they were issued it at the time so there isn't really a date that we have to say 'after this date we will review your R&R'. I am assuming the process would be the same as (1) to remove these, although i am hesitant to remove these from staff especially as the idea is to retain them.

4) Finally we have one individual who's role evolved, he started as a Data Manager then took on a Faith lead/Arabic instructor role (This is a faith school) alongside his Data role. He gets paid a hefty amount for the faith lead and arabic role, he no longer does the arabic side of it as there is no need for it, how would we go about reducing his payment? 

5) There is a bit of a mix up in some cases where support staff are being paid a 'TLR' even though it is only for teachers, does this affect anything, can we just treat it as an honorarium?

All in all about there is 8 staff that are in the one of the above scenarios.

In all of the above i understand we would need to consult due to these payments being contractual but just wanted to hear how people would approach it and how much notice for each change would we need to give?

1612 views
  • I would first look at which ones are being paid by "mistake" e.g. if a role relinquished then the staff member should have reasonably known they would no longer be paid for this. Write to them and say the payments will now be stopping - there's a good chance you'll need to seek reimbursement of any overpayment as this is public funds and cannot always be written off.

    For those roles that have changed/evolved, you will need to consult, but there are some hefty pay protection rules in place for TLRs so make sure you factor that in to any costs.

    For R&Rs, you can consult with staff but be prepared for C&P arguments.

    To try and stop issues arising, where HR have been asked to change contracts, pay grades etc, we review if individuals have allowances and always check these are not to be reviewed/removed/changed etc at that time. We also have a JD for every TLR and SEN role and apply the allowance to this, so if a person steps down from the role we treat it as a resignation and remove the allowance.

    We have a section on R&Rs in our policy that states they will be reviewed at least annually and try to ensure Principals included these as part of their annual pay reviews.

    Hope that helps!