Menu

HR bulletin May 2018

Work Placements

The Council, often via HR, sometimes receive requests for work placements.  These can come from Moray College or the Department for Work and Pensions for example.

Frequently, these are to support young students about to leave college who require a bit of work experience for their course work or are trying to get back into work supported through the DWP.

These young people are requesting to be placed with us as they see the Moray Council as a good place to work; it also raises the profile of the Council – being known as a business that offers work experience opportunities and supports young people seeking experience in employment.

We recently had 4 work placements from students who wanted to gain experience of Administrative roles within Development Services, Procurement, Direct Services and the Chief Executive’s Section.  Managers commented that it had been a good experience; the students had worked well and got through a lot of work!  Students commented that the experience had been informative and rewarding.

Supporting young people in the workplace through placements or employment meets the national and corporate priority of developing a younger workforce, so please think about supporting requests to assist with a work placement if you can.


Employee Conference

Just a reminder to let you know that invites will be issued to staff shortly if they have been selected to attend one of the 3 events to be held in September.

The full programme for this year's conference, which will run from 8.45am (for registration) to 1.30pm, is in the finishing stages and attendees will be informed of the schedule nearer the time.

We will, of course issue lists of prospective attendees for you to check in advance of sending the invitations so you can make sure it’s Ok and that service needs are considered  - with your support we are expecting those employees who receive an invite, or a substitute will be able to attend.

Please encourage staff who receive an invitation to attend and participate, this is such a good opportunity for them to meet Directors and Senior Managers and speak with them about issues that are important.  Of course just as important is the chance to meet with colleagues who have different roles in the Council and work in other services.
 


Policy Review Update

Work has continued throughout 2017/18 to update and enhance the Council’s employment policy framework taking due consideration of changes in legislation, benchmarking and best practice recommendations. The process of reviewing a policy involves research, drafting revisions to the policy document and consultation on proposed changes at various forums with management and trade union colleagues. prior to final sign off on the revisions being accepted by the Policy and Resources Committee. This year the following policies were reviewed:

• Health and Work Policy
• Special Leave
• Change Management
• Surrogacy has now been incorporated into Adoption leave policy along with kinship care arrangements.

All policies presented underwent a minor or mid review so there are limited changes to the documents presented. In terms of formatting, the policies have been updated and electronic hyperlinks added to the documents to improve navigation around the documents; so this should improve user access.

The Health and Work Policy was expanded to include supporting information on early intervention and now includes an additional guide on specific conditions and self-help resources; template letters have been included and clarification on when short term absence moves onto long term absence and how this will be managed. This has streamlined the policy making this more user friendly for employees and managers alike.

The Special Leave policy underwent a minor review which included provision for leave for Carers; sign posting and hyperlinks to other relevant policy documents; the introduction of an electronic application form and information on how your pay is affected by special leave.

Minor revisions were made to the Change Management policy including updating the legislation references; adding hyperlinks; adding the Transform Experience Questionnaire to the appendices and providing clarification on pay protection arrangements.

In response to legislation changes, surrogacy has now been incorporated into the Adoption Leave Policy along with Kinship care arrangements.  Additionally these provisions have also been referenced within our maternity and adoption support policies and procedures to ensure they are reflective of our current provisions.

All updated policies will be live on the interchange from mid-May.


Employment Status and IR35

It is important that the Moray Council determines employment status to ensure that we are able to identify and apply individual rights and employer responsibilities as well as ensuring that the appropriate rules in respect of tax and national insurance are being adhered to.

It  is critical therefore that managers understand that determining employment status is key to ensuring that the Council is meeting obligations in relation to tax and NI contributions as well as employment rights.

Guidance has been produced to aid managers through this process outlining the key factors when considering the employment relationship, which can be one of employee, worker or self-employed.

The majority of people who work for the Council are employees. However, there are a number of areas where managers have engaged the services of an individual who may be using a personal service company, a consultancy or other intermediary vehicle and it is vital that these arrangements are reviewed and an assessment made of employment status.

Where individuals are engaged through an employment agency, the agency is usually responsible for the deduction of tax and National Insurance Contributions.

For tax purposes, there is an online tool available from HM Revenues and Customs Employment Status Service. Engaging managers must complete an assessment using this tool for all instances where they engage services as outlined above. The outcome of this assessment must be recorded on the Contractors Declaration Form.

For employment purposes, detailed consideration of the facts of the actual employment relationship is required against the factors outlined in the guidance document. It is important to note that the determination of employment status will be based on the actual relationship that exists and not necessarily what the parties think or want the relationship to be.

Holiday Reminder

You will be aware of how important it is for everyone to take regular breaks for their health and wellbeing so perhaps a timely reminder to staff that they should book some time over the summer if they haven't already would be useful.

Support and advice is available by contacting hr@moray.gov.uk and/or payroll@moray.gov.uk 

Contact Us:

If you need to contact us, we can be reached on the HR Helpline (01343 563261) or by emailing hr@moray.gov.uk

Rate this Page