Soulbury employers' side pay spine consultation

Dear Colleague

We act as the Secretariat for the Employers' Side of the Soulbury Committee and we are contacting authorities to determine views on proposals by the Officers’ Side (representing employees) to amend the current pay spines for Soulbury Officers (Educational Improvement Professionals Educational Psychologists and Young People’s/Community Service Managers).

If you are not the correct person to consider this it would greatly assist the consultation process if you could forward this to the relevant person within your organisation who is responsible for Soulbury issues and who is familiar with the terms and conditions of Soulbury Officers that are covered by the Committee.

You can read background information on Soulbury. The proposals for consultation are below.

We will be entering into discussions with the Soulbury Officers’ Side soon on their pay spine proposals and we would therefore welcome your views and comments in advance of this by close on 12 March 2021.

Please send your responses to jacky.teasell@local.gov.uk

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

David Algie
Employers’ Side Secretariat

Officers’ side proposals

Below are the proposals submitted by the Officers’ Side and we welcome your views on the proposals numbered 1-6.

The important role of Soulbury officers as critical workers has been underlined throughout the pandemic. They have supported local authorities, schools, children and young people and parents – their work will also be highly significant in the post pandemic and recovery stages during the next few years.

The Officers Side’s view is that only a few Soulbury officers are paid at the bottom of the Soulbury pay scales and that some are paid more than the maximum on the appropriate scale.

The Officers' Side proposes the following changes to the pay scales:

1. In the spine for Education Improvement Professionals, points 1-4 should be eliminated, making point 5 the first point of the spine. There should be two additional points after point 50.
2. In the scale for Trainee Educational Psychologists, point 1 should be eliminated, making point 2 the first point of the scale.
3. In the scale for Assistant Educational Psychologists, point 1 should be eliminated, making point 2 the first point of the scale.
4. In Scale A for Educational Psychologists, points 1-3 should be eliminated, making point 4 the first point of the scale. The three six-point scales permitted to local authorities would then become 3-8, 4-9 and 5-10, with authorities retaining the right to choose which of those scales they use. There should be three additional points after point 11.
5. In the scale for Senior and Principal Educational Psychologists, points 1-3 should be eliminated, making point 4 the first point of the scale. There should be three additional points after point 18.
6. The Soulbury agreement makes it clear that the third SPA point is not subject to any quota but far too few Soulbury officers are in practice in receipt of that point. The criteria for the third SPA point should be reviewed to ensure that officers are not unreasonably being denied progression, but serious discussions should be held about the addition of a fourth SPA point.