Fórsa is continuing its engagement with the Department of Education and Skills on this year’s roll out of shared services in the education and training sector on behalf of members working in the education and training boards (ETBs).

 

The department’s shared services plan for the 2017-2020 period aims to transfer two of the 16 ETB payroll sections into shared services by mid-2018.

 

The plan follows on from shared services proposals in the Public Service Reform Plan for 2014-2016, which looked at establishing shared services in areas such as HR, payroll, pensions, finance, IT and corporate services within the Department of Education and Skills and the wider education and training sector.

 

The latest plan includes specific plans for payroll and finance shared services for the 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs).

 

The shared services unit is to be based in the former Liberty building in Blanchardstown, Dublin, Assistant general secretary Stella Griffin explained that, when fully operational, there will be 290 staff employed there as follows:

The balance of staff will be deployed in the corporate and information technology (IT) sections.

 

Stella said the next step is that two ETB payroll sections will transfer, followed by two phases of a transfer to shared services, with seven ETBs involved in each of the latter two phases.

 

“The process of staffing shared services is being carried out by seeking expressions of interest, in the first instance, from ETB staff. If they don’t get sufficient staff uptake from that process, the next call for expressions of interest will go to staff at the Department of Education and Skills, followed by the wider Civil Service, and finally to the public appointments service (PAS),” Stella explained.

 

Stella said a service management agreement will be drawn up between each ETB and the applicable shared service.