Managing and Updating Pay Scales

Pay Scales FAQ

To create Pay Scales you can either:

  • import the Pay Scale and Pay Scale Spinal Point templates in bulk using our Entity Importer
  • push them down from the MAT MIS
  • set them up manually in Arbor following the instructions below

Spinal Point values within a pay scale can be updated from one slide over at once (for example when all points are updated to new increments in April/September to account for inflation). You will need to enter the full salary amount manually as Arbor won’t be able to calculate a percentage increase. Follow the Adding new salaries to a Pay Scale after review or inflation section below.

You can also see more detail on our FAQs here:

Which pay scales must be set up for the Workforce census?

The DfE requires you to report on the pay scales and spinal points for your leadership staff only. Leadership staff must have their salary linked to a Headteacher, Assistant Head or Deputy Head pay scale in Staff Profile > Contracts > Salary. If you haven’t yet set up a separate pay scale each for Headteachers, Assistant Heads and Deputy Heads or updated the spinal point salary amounts for this year, take a look at the instructions below.

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For non-leadership staff, you can add all the pay scales for every staff if you wish, or use the Custom FTE salary amount to enter the full-time equivalent salary. Just ignore the first three boxes and enter the custom FTE salary amount instead.

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Setting up a new Pay Scale

Step 1 - Add your Pay Scale

To set up the pay scales go to School > All Staff > HR Admin > Pay scales and click +Add.

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Complete the information for the pay scale - name, effective date, end date, minimum salary and maximum salary. Here is an example: 

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Step 2 - Add the Pay Range and Regional pay range

Click the field to add the Pay range and Regional pay range. Remember to choose the Pay range of Leadership for Headteacher, Assistant Head or Deputy Head pay scales!

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Step 3 - Add Spinal Points

Click the +Add in the spinal Points section to define the spinal points.

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The slide over will automatically populate to create 32 spinal points, but you can change this as required. For example, to create 2 new spinal points you would put 1 and 2 in the boxes respectively.

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You will then see the spinal points added.

Then click Set New FTE Salary Values button to enter the desired values for the salary and effective dates for this set of spinal points.

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Step 4 - Add Grades (Optional)

Adding grades can help you to distinguish the level or responsibility taken on by your staff members, showing that they should be assigned to a higher pay spinal point. Adding grades is optional, and this data is not collected in the Workforce Census.

To add a grade, click +Add in the grades section.

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Once you have added your grades you can then assign them to spinal points. You can do this in two ways:

Click into the Spinal Point table then click +Add in the Grades section.

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In the Grades section, click the grade. Click +Add to add more spinal points to the grade.

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To delete a grade, click on the grade, then click Delete Grade.

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Top Tip: If you can't delete it, remove it from all the staff members it has been assigned to.

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You will not be able to delete the grade if it has been pushed down from the MAT MIS.

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Step 5 - Assign your Pay Scale to staff members

Go to the staff member's Staff Profile and go to Contracts from the left-hand menu. Scroll down to the Salary section. Click +Add to add pay information.

Can't see the salary section? See this article: The salary section is missing from the Contract on the staff profile

Here you can choose the pay scale, grade (optional) and pay scale spinal point, then scroll down and click Save changes to apply the pay scale.

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The staff member will then appear in the Staff Contract Posts with Pay Scale section on the Pay Scale Overview.

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Adding new salaries to a Pay Scale after review or inflation

So you can keep a record of any salary changes for pay scale spinal points, you can define the effective dates for each salary. This enables you to set the next salary a staff member will move to, and the date this will happen. 

For example, my initial pay scale went from £30,000 to £62,000 but I know that the pay for each spinal point would be reviewed, and new salaries will be implemented on 1 April 2019.

When setting up your initial salaries you should have specified an end date. This will determine when the salaries switch over. 

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Then, once you know what the new salaries would be for each spinal point, add these in by clicking the Set New FTE Salary Values button.

Note that for this new set of salaries, set them to begin the day after the previous set.

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The Pay Scales table will then show the Next FTE Salary. This salary will also automatically be applied to the staff members assigned to each spinal point once the Effective date has passed.

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Editing current Pay Scales

Go to School > All Staff > HR Admin > Pay scalesHere you can see all the pay scales you have set up. Click on a scale to visit the Pay Scale Overview.

Editing a pay scale

On the Pay Scale Overview you can view and edit your pay scale set up. In the Pay Scale information section, you can edit any of the information that has an arrow symbol.

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In the Spinal Points section, you can see all the spinal points of the pay scale that you have set up, the salary of each spinal point, when the current pay is valid until, the next salary if it has been set up and the grade assigned to each spinal point.

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To see or edit more information about the spinal point, or delete it, click the row in the table containing the spinal point. You can only delete a spinal point if there are no staff members assigned to it.

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To add new spinal points, click +Add. The slide over will automatically populate to create 32 spinal points, but you can change this as required. For example, to create 2 new spinal points you would put 1 and 2 in the boxes respectively.

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In the Staff Contract Posts with Pay Scale section, you can see a list of all the staff members that are currently assigned one of the spinal points. Click a staff member to visit their Staff Profile. 

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To delete a grade, click on the grade, then click Delete Grade.

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Top Tip: If you can't delete it, remove it from all the staff members it has been assigned to.

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You will not be able to delete the grade if it has been pushed down from the MAT MIS.

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Deleting a Pay Scale

You can only delete a pay scale if there are no staff members assigned to it. You must first remove all the staff members from the pay scale using the salary section in Staff Profile > Contracts > Salary. 

Returning to the pay scale, you will then be able to delete it by clicking the red Delete Pay Scale button.

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