Managing our Workforce: teachers’ voluntary severance/early retirement scheme
Wednesday, June 4 2008
Members of Scottish Borders Council’s Executive Committee have unanimously approved a policy that would enable eligible teaching staff to take early retirement / voluntary severance.
The aim of the scheme is to facilitate the achievement of business transformation within the Council and create opportunities for efficiency savings. Asking for volunteers to take early retirement / voluntary severance will allow education managers to restructure these roles to create greater efficiency without necessarily reducing the number of teaching staff.
This ‘renewal’ of the teaching workforce is linked to the very positive recommendations from the Transformation of Children’s Services review – details of which will be published on 17 June.
The one-off costs of the scheme will be met from the Council’s central budget, not from the education budget. Savings made from the scheme will outweigh any costs in the long-term.
The policy follows the recent ‘Managing Our Workforce’ initiative, which was not open to teaching staff. To ensure fairness, it is proposed that the scheme for teaching staff will mirror, as far as is possible bearing in mind the different employment regulations, the scheme for non-teaching staff.
While the policy will allow the Council to offer early retirement / voluntary severance to all teaching staff as and when necessary, it will first be used in June for primary headteachers and principal teachers, secondary deputes and principal teachers, and promoted teaching staff in additional needs establishments.
Councillor Alec Nicol, Depute Leader of the Council (HR) said: “Change is inevitable in running a Council in today’s financial climate. This policy, along with the scheme offered to other Employees several months ago, is part of this Council managing the changes that have to be made.”
Letters will be sent to all eligible staff in the near future. The Education and Lifelong Learning Department will prepare a report on the effect on the service of all applications and analyse the costs and consequent savings from accepting each application. Council will decide in due course whether or not to accept the applications.
The anticipated leaving date of anyone who is accepted for either early retirement or voluntary severance will be at the end of the academic year 2008-2009, in June 2009.
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