Correspondence

Guidance notes (accessible version)

Published 25 February 2019

Guidance notes for time-limited, targeted bonus payments for hard to fill roles in the federated ranks, and demanding superintending roles.

In making use of the temporary regulations chief officers will be expected to comply with and incorporate the following conditions within local procedural guidance.

General

1. Ongoing payments should be for a defined period and the Officer in receipt of the payment must be notified of the relevant dates.

2. At a Chief Officer’s discretion, a payment may be tapered down gradually to ease the impact of its removal. Each case should be considered on its merits and this should be for a limited period only^{[footnote 1]} .

3. Payments are non-pensionable and cease when an Officer vacates the role attracting a payment and will be pro-rated for part-time officers^{[footnote 2]}.

4. A year is deemed the HMRC financial year (usually 6 April – 5 April).

5. The use of these pay arrangements must be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) and on-going analysis, in terms of impact on pay gaps for those with protected characteristics.

6. To monitor the use of, and any future requirement for, these temporary arrangements, the National NPCC Reward Team will survey forces for the years 2018/19 & 2019/20. The information gathered will inform annual submissions to the Police Remuneration Review Body and be shared with the Police Consultative Forum. The type of information sought will include:

• the total amount of bonus payments made
• the amounts paid for each bonus payment
• the gender, age, race, sexuality and any additional protected characteristics of those who received a bonus payment, the amount and what the bonus payment was awarded for

7. In the interests of fairness, transparency and as much consistency as is possible, forces must put an appeals process in place that allows an officer to appeal a decision by making formal representation to the appropriate person, in relation to the local use of temporary targeted payments. Whilst not being overly prescriptive, forces are encouraged to mirror established appeal processes relating to pay. The ‘appropriate person’ should not be the decision maker and an officer should be permitted to lodge their appeal either in person or via their staff association. The officer may be represented by their staff association at the appeal.

Hard-to-fill

8. The responsibility for identifying hard to fill posts should be delegated to the senior officer or staff member with overall responsibility for workforce planning (e.g. Assistant Chief Officer or Director of HR) and the identification of hard-to-fill should take place as part of the workforce planning process. Payments should not be made outside of this process.

9. The delegated responsible officer should consult with senior operational colleagues and local staff association representatives prior to making any recommendations on posts that are deemed to fulfil the criteria, the amounts to be paid or the methods of payment. The rationale for payments must be recorded.

10. A payment is aligned to officers undertaking a specific role and/or working in a defined location. In the interests of fairness and consistency, payments must apply to all officers where the same circumstances apply.

11. Payment should be viewed only as part of a possible solution and not as a replacement for effective management interventions or good organisational design. Hard-to-fill roles will be unpopular for a range of reasons, either real or perceived. These will include:

• the potentially distressing nature of the work
• the qualifications or skills required prior to taking on the role or to be acquired once appointed
• a geographically undesirable location and/or working environment
• travel cost and time
• high and relentless workloads and insufficient resources
• high profile roles that attract considerable personal and/or career risk by virtue of their stressful nature, the level of public scrutiny and/or their public profile

12. This list is not exhaustive and a combination of these factors will often apply. Ways to mitigate against them should always be considered alongside any bonus payments.

Superintending Roles

13. In relation to paragraph 6 (a), ‘sole command’ means undertaking the sole superintending function for that command.

14. If an officer has line management, policy, process, command or on- call/cadre responsibilities in a force in addition to their own force then this would qualify as per the definition of ‘command responsibilities outside force boundaries’ for the purposes of paragraph 6 (d).

15. If an officer is posted to a national/regional role, has a national/regional portfolio or supports national/regional NPCC activity, this would qualify as working nationally or regionally for the purposes of paragraph 6 (d).

16. In determining if a command’s scale and complexity exceeds normal expectations within the force area, a Chief Officer would need to be satisfied that there was evidence of significant growth in responsibilities such as:

• staff numbers
• budget
• risk management
• accountability

As a reference point, it would be reasonable to look to the post austerity period and any associated reduction in superintending posts when making these judgements.

17. Eligible roles can be identified either by the Chief Officer or proposed by the local Superintendents’ Association.

18. Consultation should take place with the local Superintendents’ Association regarding posts that are deemed to fulfil the criteria. This should include discussion on the rationale, the proposed amount to be paid and the method of payment. Chief officers should ensure decisions are recorded.

19. Officers temporarily posted to or temporarily promoted to a demanding role are eligible for payments.

Seconding bodies

20. References to Chief Officer should be taken to mean an equivalent role in a seconding body.

1. For example, where an officer is moved for operational reasons prior to the defined period for payments ending, thus creating actual or potential financial hardship. ↩

2. Payments will continue to be paid to those in post during sickness absence and will also continue during family leave, e.g. maternity, shared parental and adoption leave. ↩