Reduction in Staffing Entitlement
This article deals with reducing teaching staff as part of the annual staffing entitlement cycle.
Different processes apply to broader restructures, e.g., mergers and closures or amongst non-teaching staff.
In most cases, the approach is governed by the applicable employment agreement.
What is entitlement staffing?
Every year, your board receives entitlement staffing to help employ teachers.
Entitlement staffing gives a board a stable base to make long-term decisions about providing for students' needs.
The Ministry of Education sends out two staffing entitlement notices per year.
March
Notice of confirmation of staffing entitlements for the current year.
September
Notice of provisional staffing entitlements for the following year (the "provisional roll").
This is a prediction of your school's roll for the following year, based on roll returns and data you have provided the Ministry of Education.
Boards can plan staffing from the provisional staffing entitlement.
How is entitlement staffing calculated?
Entitlement staffing is calculated from a school's roll for each year level using a formula.
It's made up of three components.
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Curriculum staffing
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Management staffing
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Guidance staffing
Entitlement staffing also determines how many salary units and middle and senior management allowances your school will have available to allocate.
You can read more about how these are calculated on the Entitlement staffingopen_in_new page of the Ministry website.
What is banking staffing?
Banking staffing is a Ministry system that allows schools to decide when to use their teaching staffing entitlement.
This allows schools to be flexible in staffing to their students' needs.
Within the banking staffing year, your board may choose to:
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Use your staffing entitlement in advance up to 10%,
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Save up your staffing entitlement to use later in the year, or
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Operate your staffing usage on a full-year basis, with no saving or overuse.
School management should report on banking staffing usage at each board meeting.
Can entitlement staffing be reviewed?
If a board believes they have a good business case to make permanent appointments over and above their staffing entitlement, they can seek a review by applying to the Ministry's Resourcing Unit for a reconsideration of staffing entitlement.
A request for a review should be done before moving to any surplus staffing process.
You could also contact your regional Te Mahau office and speak with your education adviser to get support in reviewing your staffing entitlement.
You can read more about Surplus staffing supportopen_in_new on the Ministry's website.
The process for surplus staffing support runs from mid-September to the end of January.
It can take up to four weeks for a response, so the sooner you act on this, the sooner you will know whether you will receive any additional support.
If your provisional staffing entitlement is lower than your current staffing entitlement, please get in touch with us, so we can help you:
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Decide whether to reduce the number of teachers
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Run the process to identify which positions to disestablish
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Ensure that you have met all your obligations as a good employer acting in good faith.
Questions a principal could ask
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Do we need to apply for a review to the Resourcing Unit of the Ministry?
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Is there information we have missed when supplying our figures for staffing? (include this in the review)
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Is there a good business case associated directly with delivering the core curriculum that we can put forward for a review?
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Have we informed the relevant union/s that we have reduced staffing entitlement and may need to enter into a surplus staffing process?
Templates, resources, and references
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