HR and Payroll Bulletin - September 2024

Information for new starters

A very warm welcome to all our new starters here at Lancashire County Council, we hope you are settling in well. Some quick reminders to ensure your pay is as accurate as possible.

Income Tax

So that we can ensure that you are paying the correct amount of tax, our Payroll colleagues require one of the following documents from you:

  • A P45 provided by a recent former employer.
  • A New Starter Form (formerly known as a P46) downloaded from the HMRC website.
  • Notification from HMRC of a tax code

Without this, you will be taxed at the basic rate (20%) on the whole of your income.

Please email parts 2 and 3 of your P45 or a completed New Starter Form to one of the following:

LCC Non-Schools

Schools

If you have any queries regarding your tax code, please contact the HMRC at 0300 200 3300 and not Lancashire County Council.

Recruitment support for hiring managers - a new support model 

For any vacancy requisitions created on/after 1 September 2024, the service provided by the Recruitment Team within The People Hub has changed and has moved to a centralised recruitment offer for all hiring managers/services.

In simple terms, this means that Recruitment Officers will undertake all pre-employment compliance checks on behalf of hiring managers, so no more having to remember to chase references or arrange pre-employment occupational health appointments. This model is already operating for several services within the county council and has now been implemented across the whole of the organisation.

The aim is to support the council's People Strategy by filling vacancies faster and more efficiently by streamlining the recruitment workflow, from the initiation of a vacancy to the successful onboarding of new candidates. Other benefits include:

  • Reducing onboarding delays
  • Free up hiring manager's time to focus on operational activity
  • Improved candidate experience

As a quick overview, hiring managers will retain responsibility for the following tasks:

  • Creating vacancy requisitions on Oracle Fusion
  • Shortlisting
  • Interviewing and making hiring decisions
  • Approving references

If you have any queries about the new support model and how it affects you, please email the team at Recruitment@lancashire.gov.uk.

Establishment (position and hierarchy structure) queries

The Establishment Operations Team within The People Hub maintain and manage the council's establishment. The 'establishment' is the structure of the organisation held within the Oracle Fusion system and the team are responsible for creating and making changes to departments, services, positions (also referred to as 'posts'), and hierarchies. The team collaborate with and support managers to maintain and control their organisational structure, ensuring that their workforce is set up in a way that meets business need and ensures the smooth running of the service.

For further information on the processes we have in place to ensure we manage the council's establishment effectively, please refer to the establishment operations page on the HR, Pay and Employment section of the Intranet.

If you have a query about the council's establishment or your position hierarchy, please email hrestablishmentteam@lancashire.gov.uk. For any employee or payroll query, please raise a Service Request with AskHR. 

Occupational Health update

The county council's occupational health provider, Optima Health, is migrating all myOHportal users to a new platform called Microsoft Azure.  When the migration happens existing users who already have an account on myOHportal will need to complete a password reset the next time they log on. 

Users registering for a 'new account' on myOHportal can follow the prompts provided on the system itself. Any new manager accounts set up will use Azure automatically and all exisiting accounts will migrate from Okta to Azure.

Occupational Health referrals for mental health related sickness absences

Just a reminder that managers should refer employees to Occupational Health on day one of any absence where the reason for the absence is due to mental health. This will ensure that our colleagues get access to the support they need at the earliest opportunity. 

Agency worker placements - extension request process

To provide more robust governance around the use of agency workers, there is a new process in place to request extensions to agency worker placements.

When an agency worker is sourced via Matrix, the maximum duration that the placement can be in place initially is now 3 months. If the placement needs to be extended past the 3-month period, this now requires both Head of Service and Director approval.

The Agency Team within The People Hub will download an active placement list from the Matrix system each month and identify any agency workers who have placements that are due to end in the following month. The team will then send a list of these workers to the relevant Head of Service along with an e-form that will need to be completed and signed. Once completed, the form will automatically be sent to the relevant Director for review and signing. It will be the Director's signature that is the approval of the placement extension.

Heads of Service can only request extensions to placements for agency workers that are currently working in their service. If they receive a placement extension request for an agency worker that is no longer in their service/team, or has moved teams within the service, the relevant box should be ticked 'No' on the form and the placement should be ended on Matrix. The new manager will then need to create a new placement on Matrix.

A more detailed guide on agency worker supply and further guidance on how to complete the placement extension request e-form for Heads of Service and Directors is available on the intranet.

Vivup employee benefit - tax information

Some employees have recently received letters from HMRC informing them about a change to their tax code as a result of them purchasing goods via the Vivup salary sacrifice offer and this has led to some queries about the tax implications of salary sacrifice.

Employees purchasing goods via the salary sacrifice scheme sign an agreement with Vivup that states:

I understand that there will either be a change to my Tax code, or a Tax charge will be taken at source by participating in the scheme.  

Under the salary sacrifice scheme, the council allows employees to purchase household or electrical items under an agreement that enables them to sacrifice some of their salary in exchange for a 'benefit', i.e. household or electrical items. In practice, this means that their monthly gross salary will be reduced, resulting in an initial saving on tax and savings on National Insurance, and pension contributions.

The council submits a P11D to HMRC on the employee's behalf in the July of the following tax year. P11Ds can be accessed in the same way as payslips and P60s. HMRC may adjust the employee's tax code to recover the tax owed following the submission of the P11D.

Please note that the P11D will show the total amount of orders made within a tax year (6 April to 5 April) and not the amount sacrificed in accordance with HMRC regulations.  The full taxable benefit arises at the start of the scheme (when the transfer of ownership occurs) so employers can't split P11D figures across multiple years.

Please raise a Service Request with AskHR if you require further information about how this may affect you.

Change to excess travel and training mileage rates from 1 September 2024

The excess travel and training mileage has changed from 14p to 13p per mile from 1 September 2024, in line with the change in the HMRC minimum advisory fuel rate for a petrol engine car that's effective from this date. 

Any mileage claimed in respect of excess travel or training accrued from 1 September 2024 onwards will be paid at the revised 13p rate.  HMRC review their advisory fuel rates quarterly – on 1 March, 1 June, 1 September, and 1 December each year – and we will notify employees of any changes that impact on the council's existing rates as and when these occur.

Excess travel is only to be claimed where previously agreed under the compensation policy such as in cases of a change in workplace.

Please note that excess travel is not a valid option when claiming mileage for teachers and will not produce a payment.

Annual leave

In July, some discrepancies appeared on some employee's annual leave balance calculations. During the investigation into these, we asked managers to refrain from making any manual adjustments to leave balances or reporting additional incidents. The issue was successfully resolved on the 25 July. Should any employees or managers still encounter discrepancies with leave balances that don't relate to banked leave and are within the annual leave policy, please raise a Service Request with AskHR who will then establish whether further investigation is needed by Digital Services.

Please note, any amendments to leave balances by managers that are outside of the annual leave policy should only occur on an exceptional basis and must receive prior approval from the Head of Service.

Amendments to terminations submitted on Fusion

A new Termination Correction and Claims after Leaving form has been created for amendments to terminations. The form should only be used after a termination has been submitted on Fusion and where an error has been identified on the original submission. The corrections include:

  • Incorrect termination date
  • Incorrect post terminated
  • Change of termination reason
  • Request to reverse termination
  • PILON and Accrued Holiday Pay for Leavers if not included in original termination.

The form can be accessed and downloaded by clicking this link.

Useful information, support and links

Oracle Fusion – Self-service training for managers

The Manager Self Service training course shows managers how to carry out the self-service tasks required of them as part of their manager role. Courses are running throughout the year. Learn more about this course and check availability for booking on the Learning and Training area of the Intranet.

Payroll Deadlines 2024-25

Please make sure all payment claims are completed in line with our published payroll deadlines to guarantee changes are made in time for pay day.

 

Feedback

If you would like to give any feedback to our Payroll team, email payroll-feedback@lancashire.gov.uk