Professional Services Restructures

This update details ongoing processes relating to the restructure of school based Professional Services teams, and some faculty PS teams, as part of ‘New Schools’. This is a substantial development that impacts the whole of the University, but whilst impacted PS colleagues will be acutely aware of the current period of uncertainty, central University communications have neglected to keep all staff and students abreast of ongoing developments.

‘The Professional Services Framework’

As of last week the University has updated its FAQs on the New Schools staff web pages. These include a series of new standardised job descriptions for roles in school PS teams which have now been shared with colleagues in those areas. Feedback on these job descriptions and additional specialised roles is accepted until November 15th, after which School leadership teams are expected to develop draft structures to submit to the ‘PS Oversight Group’ by the 13th December.

Management have confirmed that they expect formal Collective Consultation processes to take place from February 2024, with new PS structures intended to be in place from May. We also know that there are well in excess of 1000 members of staff currently in school PS teams. It is not yet clear how the University plans to tackle these restructures, whether all at once or in phases, but whatever they decide we have grave concerns about the capacity of HR and union reps to work on these, to say nothing of the enormous impact on PS staff themselves and the knock-on effects for colleagues not in scope.

Please share your feedback with your managers, or to the dedicated PS Framework HR email address psframework@sheffield.ac.uk, including if roles are being graded at the wrong level or work areas have been missed out. We are aware that a significant number of roles are not currently represented by these job descriptions, including accreditation, external relations, and employability.

We understand that staff in school PS teams have been asked to ensure their job descriptions are up-to-date ahead of the restructuring. We would strongly encourage staff to engage with this process to make sure they accurately reflect the work you currently do, to put you in the best position if you do, unfortunately, find yourself in the scope of a New Schools restructure.

Our Concerns

The trade unions are extremely disappointed that, despite being assured repeatedly that the New Schools project was not about reducing costs or cutting jobs, the timing of the PS changes means that they have become inextricably linked with the University’s cost-cutting exercises in response to the financial crisis. Budgets for PS teams will be lower than they would have been if the New Schools changes had been implemented a year or even six months ago, and teams are highly likely to be designed according to financial constraints, rather than genuine needs within schools. It is particularly galling to see PS teams taking this hit, when the New Schools project has involved significant financial investment,  including new academic leadership ‘uplifts’, university and school rebranding, and of course, the money that it costs for staff to devote untold hours to merging departments, rethinking curriculum, and supporting students through the most major structural change this university has seen in over a decade. We also want to raise serious concerns about such financial decisions in light of the 2023 decisions of the Senior Remuneration committee to remove the 10% cap on bonuses for members of UEB, and to substantially uplift the salary of the Vice Chancellor.

In addition to significant concerns about the impact of this restructuring on staff welfare, losing staff, and the impact on workloads, members have also expressed to us their worries about the homogenisation of school PS structures without due regard for discipline-specific demands, such as technical teams, specialised roles, recruitment, and accreditation. We struggle to see how day to day work will be able to continue as normal in schools while these changes are being implemented, as staff in scope of the changes will understandably need to focus on their own wellbeing, engaging with the consultation, applying for roles, and supporting each other. We know this is going to place enormous pressure on School Managers in particular. We also have concerns about the timing of the restructuring falling in Semester 2, with the potential for huge disruption to teaching activities, including assessments, exam boards, and graduation.

Support Available for PS staff

The Campus Trade Unions have regular meetings with HR so please get in touch if there’s anything that members think we should raise here at a general level. We are also happy to ask questions if staff wish to remain anonymous. Members of committee will also be acting as TU representatives during the formal collective consultation processes.

While TU representatives represent the interests of all staff involved in restructures, union members have additional advantages such as access to caseworkers and reps, being part of the union’s democratic process and voting on motions. Encourage your colleagues to join a union! All campus trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and UCU) are open to all staff, and there is no right or wrong union to join. It may be helpful to let colleagues know that all the unions have minimum membership periods before formal casework support can be offered. For UCU, this is 90 days. This means that if staff anticipate wanting to call on casework support during the restructure period of February to May, they should be thinking about joining a union as soon as possible.

Keep talking to each other and to your managers. If there are any unique circumstances you are facing then do get in touch with your departmental rep or contact us at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk for further advice. If any members are interested in taking on a more focused PS rep role then please do get in touch!

We hold a monthly forum for PS members, the next of which is on Monday 2nd December 1pm  (meeting dates). Meeting details and minutes are circulated to our PS members mailing list (if you are not on this and think you should be, please let us know).