Professional development insight
A week in the life of a Chartered Member...
John Stonestreet ChMCIPPdip Head of payroll and pensions for Essex and Kent police forces M y current role with the police is varied and interesting. The joint department I head was I then travel to Essex headquarters to work on the details of the police staff pay award that was due in September 2017, but which was finalised and agreed in May 2018. Tuesday
Thursday Northfleet, Kent – Including myself, the payroll and pensions team comprises nine staff members. I use my time here to catch up with the team and attack the paperwork that arrives daily, despite the near constant email traffic. I have succession planning meetings with my deputy and senior payroll officer to ensure our function would continue to run smoothly and seamlessly in the event of an individual leaving. This is a very important piece of strategic planning applicable to all levels of the organisation which allows input from staff on areas they would like to receive training or development. Friday Westminster, London – Attending the NPCC National Reward Framework Working Party, which is an initiative aiming to deliver proposals for a new police officer reward framework. Stakeholders include national human resources colleagues, representatives from police staff associations and the Home Office. I’m grateful for this opportunity as it enables me to not only have strategic insight and input into the proposals, but to add a technical angle where they may not be workable or require specific clarification before implementation. Being involved allows me to flag up issues before they come into legislation and then require amendment, thus sparing the taxpayer time and delays to implementing new payments. n John has over twenty years’ experience in payroll in both the private and public sector and has been involved in implementing new payroll systems and upgrades throughout his career. He obtained the then IPPM Diploma in Payroll and Pensions Management in 2003; and in January 2018 was one of the first CIPP members to obtain Individual Chartered Status.
formed in 2014 and is responsible for the payment of salaries and pensions to over 18,000 police officers, staff and retired officers across seven payrolls. Essex Police and Kent Police have been collaboration partners for over ten years and constantly seek to improve processes and procedures in order to deliver the savings required during a challenging time for public sector finances. I am a member of both forces’ finance senior management teams and an active member of the CIPP. I’m also involved nationally with the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) tax forum, the National Police Payroll Managers Group and NPCC National Reward Framework Working Party. The peripatetic nature of my role means I move around Essex and Kent frequently. So, IT solutions, such as video and telephone conferencing, are increasingly utilised in order to cut down travelling time and the associated costs. Monday Great Dunmow and Chelmsford, Essex – My week always starts with a morning briefing with Essex command team colleagues. We update one another about activities that occurred the previous week and what is currently planned for the coming week. There are always variations of what actually happens with what is planned due to the reactive nature of a lot of payroll work and other external activities. After the call, I check in with my team. After catching up with the team and emails including the invaluable CIPP News On Line email, I deliver some training on our BACS software to a colleague within our business services team who has been added as a BACS contact.
Chelmsford, Essex – I am lucky to work for an organisation that has an effective and well-utilised flexible working policy: after dropping my children to nursery and school I return to headquarters to continue working on the pay award. The backdated nature of this means all staff retirements since September require a fresh set of pensionable pay figures to be sent to pension administrators at County Hall which involves planning to address. I have a daily update call with my deputy based in Northfleet to keep in touch with the day to day operation of the department, and spend the afternoon updating the VAT tables after the new advisory fuel rates are released for the forces to be able to reclaim the tax on the fuel element of business mileage. Wednesday Maidstone, Kent – I’m a regular user of one of the UK’s largest car parks – the M25 – but eventually arrive at Kent headquarters for our monthly senior management team meeting. Topics discussed include the internal development programme – Develop You – and how to ensure our staff are taking the opportunities available to them including wellbeing courses, confidence workshops, Myers-Briggs type indicator sessions and leadership training. Both forces have a refreshing continuous improvement strategy aimed at all levels and recognise that continual development of our staff and officers is key as the foundation to all our successes is our people.
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Issue 42 | July - August 2018
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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