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Safeguarding
If your salary is reduced by your employer you may be eligible for safeguarding.
Your salary is eligible for up to three years of safeguarding if your salary is reduced as a result of the closure of your school or a restructuring within your existing school.
The following are common reasons for safeguarding:
the removal or reduction in value of a TLR payment
the removal of a SEN allowance
the lowering of your pay range on the advanced skills teacher pay scale or leadership group
the lowering of your salary as an excellent teacher
the removal or reduction of an unqualified teachers allowance.
SEN review 2010
Any teacher who loses a SEN allowance or has the value reduced as a result of this review is entitled to safeguarding for up to three years from 1 September 2010. Safeguarding may cease if the teacher is awarded a higher level of allowance or progresses on the main or upper pay scale (including when first moving on to the upper pay scale).
The start of safeguarding
The start date of your safeguarding period is determined by when you are told of the reduction in your salary
If you are informed between:
1 September and 31 December, the safeguarding period starts from 1 January
1 January and 31 March, the safeguarding period starts from 1 April
1 April and 31 August, the safeguarding period starts from 1 September.
The end of safeguarding
Your safeguarding will remain in place for three years unless one of the following occurs beforehand:
you change pay scales (ie move from or onto the main payscale, leadership group or become an excellent or advanced skills teacher)
you are placed on a higher point on the pay scale which increases your salary more than the safeguarded sum
you leave the school.
Additional duties
If the safeguarded sum is in excess of £500 you may be required to undertake an additional duty to retain the safeguarded sum.
Refusal to undertake the additional duty may result in the safeguarded sum being removed. The additional duty should be appropriate to a teacher and should not attract a TLR payment.
Need further advice?
Your first point of contact is your ATL rep in your school or college. Your local ATL branch is also available to help with queries, or you can contact ATL's member advisors on tel: 020 7930 6441 or email us. Please have your membership number to hand when telephoning and include it with any correspondence - this will help us to answer your query more quickly.