Payroll service - Academies

Key Benefits

• All fees and salaries calculated and paid accurately and on time.
• Friendly and reliable service.
• A comprehensive personnel and payroll service, when bought with PT01.

Service Details

The Payroll Contracts Compliance Team will carry out the following services on behalf of your academy:

• manage the payroll provision contract
• ensure all payroll and pension statutory responsibilities are fully met
• provide you with support and advice when you need it, and resolve any problems you may have with the service
• deliver a high quality managed service at a fixed price.

The Payroll Service will also carry out the following:

• calculate gross pay, including claims for expenses, overtime and supply teachers
• calculate and pay net salaries and other allowances and reimbursements
• calculate and apply appropriate statutory and authorised deductions
• advise on taxable benefits and expenses and general tax compliance issues
• maintain comprehensive payroll records
• administer the processing and financial control of payroll
• produce pay advice slips electronically via ePay website
• pay staff directly by BACS automatic transfer
• administer statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay
• administer occupational sick pay and occupational maternity pay
• apply both national and local terms and conditions of service
• administer any authorised increase to trade union subscriptions or other voluntary deductions
• provide information on employee records and payroll transactions, as required, to authorised parties
• keep a record of all payroll transactions and provide monthly reconciliation reports
• interpret and apply statutory and common law requirements relating to payroll matters
• prevent errors and fraud, through our secure premises and IT systems
• detect and correct any errors
• pay all deductions to third parties, for example the HM Revenue and Customs, pension schemes or trade unions
• administer payroll year-end procedures and help you to comply with your statutory obligations, including issuing P60, P11d and P9d documentation to employees
• provide advice, and handle queries from employees or their representatives, external agencies and other authorised interested third parties, such as solicitors and accountants.

For more information see Appendix 1: Contract schedule for academies (Word, 454KB)

Changes to service requirements

If you have a change in requirements, such as introducing absence processing, or the introduction of local terms and conditions of employment relating to payments to staff, which require system configuration changes or additional manual processes, they will be subject to formal quotation procedures.

Exclusions

Your academy is responsible for ensuring that all administration of benefits in kind (BIKs) processed outside of the payroll meets statutory requirements.

You must seek and maintain dispensations of tax liability from HM Revenue & Customs with regard to BIKs and other taxable benefits for employees (for example mileage reimbursement rates and use of mobile phones and laptops).

The academy, as the employer, remains responsible for full compliance with BIKs and all other PAYE issues. Contact the Payroll Service for further advice.

Pricing

To view the price for your academy, download the Academies Autoprice Catalogue 2013-14 (Excel, 42KB) (secure document).

Please note: for newly converting academies, a one-off set up fee will apply, contact us for details and a quotation.

Funded Support

Getting The Most From Your Service

What Your School Needs To Do

In order for us to set up your payroll service, you must:

• provide East Sussex County Council (ESCC) with your Teachers Pension, Secure Transfer Utility (STU) access log on and DFE number, so we can maintain your employees’ Teachers Pension records
• provide ESCC with your academy’s unique employer tax office reference issued by HM Revenue & Customs by the date arranged
• provide ESCC with the Teachers Pensions reference allocated to your academy by CAPITA on behalf of Teachers Pensions by the date arranged
• provide ESCC with the Bank Automated Clearing Service (BACS) User Reference by the date arranged (if you are unsure of the process for applying for the User Reference you will need to contact your bank in the first instance and ask for an application pack)
• when advised by ESCC, instruct your academy’s bank to link the new BACs User Reference to the payroll service provider’s BACS Bureau Reference (to enable our payroll service to process electronic files of pay data on behalf of your academy)
• provide ESCC with your academy’s bank account and bank sort code by the date agreed
• when advised by ESCC, instruct HMRC to allow payroll service provider to carry out ‘in-year’ and ‘year-end’ electronic filing of employee data on your academy’s behalf
• if your academy currently has employees associated with a childcare vouchers salary sacrifice scheme, contact the provider to register as a new employer and set up your own scheme. The provider will then arrange for the vouchers to continue under this new scheme.

Quality Assurance

Payroll procedures

We document all payroll processes and procedures to ensure that we deliver a consistent and effective service. Standards of responsiveness include:

• ensuring that all pay runs are completed by the due date
• processing all payroll notifications received within the specified deadline, by the due date, for the running of the payroll
• processing late notifications, wherever possible, in time for the payroll run
• in the case of overpayments resulting from a payroll service provider’s error, refunding the budget holder on the first appropriate payroll run following discovery of the overpayment
• responding to routine correspondence within five working days and more complicated enquiries within 10 working days
• dealing with telephone calls promptly.

Contract management

We regularly monitor the service received from the payroll provider:

• monitoring performance of the contract by means of monthly reports on a number of key performance indicators
• holding monthly meetings to review performance and agree actions to be taken
• monitoring the quality of the service and the performance of the payroll department through the Payroll Service Management Board, which acts on your behalf to ensure your interests are represented properly
• annual auditing of the payroll service and its systems.

Payroll service improvement plan

In negotiating the contract, the Payroll Contracts Compliance Team has always maintained best value, both in the cost and quality of the contracted services.

The team has implemented and monitors a service improvement plan with payroll department as a means of making continuous improvements to the quality of the service. The service will be the subject of a best value review during the current cycle.

Terms & Conditions

Support