Professional Fees – Summary

Summary

The following responses were received:

	No of Responses
Response was in agreement with the proposal	2
Response was not in agreement with the proposal	11
Total	13

Responses

In order to ensure openness and transparency the responses received have been summarised / grouped wherever possible. The response noted in the table below may therefore been paraphrased.

Response	Reply
If it is essential that a Professional Membership is required of a job, then it should be up to the Council to pay for this. If they do not pay for it, then the salary level provided for that is not equivalent to posts at the same grade who do not require to have membership. The answer given to me previously, is that I applied for the post knowing that I would have to pay for membership, but clearly that is not a reason for not taking a post or offering the post. I cannot stand back and halt my career based on a £400 per year membership fee, as the rewards are greater, but the principal behind this current arrangement (of the employee paying) is tantamount to taking financial advantage of the situation because of the professional trade the employee happens to have chosen. The consultation should be – should all employees requiring professional membership as part of their post be reimbursed to ensure parity with those on the same grade without this requirement.	The job evaluation of the role takes into consideration the qualification required to undertake the role. It is apparent that there are inconsistencies across the Council in respect of which roles have their membership fees paid. This inconsistency includes those roles who need to be members of a professional body in order to fulfil the requirements of their role. In the interest of transparency and consistency across the Council it has been agreed that no professional fees will be reimbursed with effect from 1st April 2021.
Professional fees- what do you mean by this?  Do you mean registration fees which we already pay ourselves or do you mean DBS fees?  If it is DBS fees I do not think it is appropriate for us to pay for our own DBS.  The nature of the work requires an up to date DBS and therefore without this check we could not carry out our role and therefore I see it as part of the terms and conditions of employment and therefore it should be paid for by the employer.	The professional fees referred to in this consultation is in relation to fees to a professional body such as British Association of Social Workers, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, The Law Society etc. DBS fees are not part of this consultation and will continue to be paid by the employer where required.
I write on behalf of all members of the Association of Educational Psychologists in Ceredigion. It is a requirement of our profession to be members of the Health Care and Professionals Council (HCPC). It is a requirement that all Educational Psychologists pay a fee (currently £180 every two years) in order to undertake this statutory role within the Local Authority. We cannot work without making this payment or without being registered as practicing psychologists. The HCPC is the body which ensures that we maintain our continuous professional development and that we work within the ethical framework required of our profession. Ceredigion LA has recognised that being members of the HCPC is an essential requirement in the recruitment process for Educational Psychologists and has to date reimbursed the psychologists for this payment. As this fee has always been reimbursed by Ceredigion LA, it can be considered an implied term of our employment contract and therefore has full contractual status. Of the 22 LAs surveyed on whether they pay the HCPC registration fee on behalf of their Educational Psychologists, we received 16 responses – the majority of which (13 of the 16 LAs) pay this fee as a recognised essential cost of employment. Educational psychologists can also join other professional bodies (which are non-mandatory) which also require an annual membership fee, for example, The British Psychological Society,  the Division of Child and Educational Psychology and the Association of Educational Psychologists. We have never asked for these professional fees to be reimbursed as employment is not dependent on these fees. I trust that you will consider this response and give due consideration to the fact that our employment as practicing psychologists is a statutory role and is dependent on this professional fee –  which acts as a license to undertake our day-to-day work.	It has become apparent that there are inconsistencies across the Council in respect of which roles have their membership fees paid. In the interest of transparency and consistency across the Council it has been agreed that no professional fees will be reimbursed with effect from 1st April 2021. Changes to terms and conditions of employment are achieved through the collective bargaining arrangements with recognised trade unions. This consultation process has resulted in a change to the terms and conditions of some members of staff. It is evident that, whilst in the minority, Ceredigion County Council will not be the only local authority requiring Educational Psychologists to pay their registration fees.
This submission is made in relation to the Council consulting on not reimbursing professional fees to staff. Please see word document which I will email separately to Human Resources for full details of the submission. Solicitors/Legal Executives have been employed as solicitors/legal executives by the Authority and so require a practicing certificate, the cost of which should be met by the Authority as the contract of employment required solicitors/legal executives. Practicing certificates are not an optional requirement for solicitors. They are required in order to enable solicitors to practice. Practicing certificates are paid by law firms in private practice and by the majority of welsh local authorities. Where salaries are less than private practice and neighbouring authorities, requiring staff to pay for a practicing certificate which is a necessary tool of the trade is additionally unfair. There is considerable value in using in house solicitors compared to paying hourly charge out rates of solicitors in private practice and the cost of paying practicing certificates by the Authority is more than compensated in the value received in return by being able to use its own solicitors.	The job evaluation of the role takes into consideration the qualification required to undertake the role. It is apparent that there are inconsistencies across the Council in respect of which roles have their membership fees paid. This inconsistency includes those roles who need to be members of a professional body in order to fulfil the requirements of their role. In the interest of transparency and consistency across the Council it has been agreed that no professional fees will be reimbursed with effect from 1st April 2021.

Decision

Implement proposal with effect from 1 April 2021.