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C08025 Data model

 

Version 1.1 Produced 2009-06-08

The staff record is collected in three sections; the Person table, the Contract table and the Grade table. The Person table should contain one record for every person employed by the institution during the reporting period and contains attributes of the individual such as birthdate, gender and ethnicity.

Each person's employment with an institution will be governed by a legally-binding contract and each contract that exists must be recorded on the Contract table. If a person has a single contract with the institution there will be one record on the Person table and one record on the Contract table. If a person has three contracts with an institution (as in the diagram below) there will be one record on the Person table and three records on the Contract table. Each contract record will include a grade identifier which may or may not be one that is included in the institutions Grade table. The grade field in the Contract table will link a contract to the relevant grade in the Grade table, identifying where a contract is linked to a national grade structure (clinical academic or outside of the HE sector), or not graded.

This structure will allow the analysis of casual and short-term patterns of employment and take account of local variations, and should result in the production of more meaningful statistics about patterns of employment across the sector.

Institutions in England have been granted a concession to compress contract information into a single record for each member of staff. Institutions who choose this option must follow a standard algorithm for the amalgamation of contract records, apply this algorithm across their entire return and inform HESA in advance of the collection of their intention to do this.

Institutions are strongly urged, if at all possible, to meet the full data specification. Doing so will enable the higher education community to present the best possible statistics, and therefore the best possible statement of its total contribution. It will also enable HESA to have in place a sound basis for time series comparisons for future years. HESA is firmly of the view that HE institutions have nothing to lose, and much to gain, from the provision of comprehensive information about their work.

Every person is allocated a unique staff identifier (STAFFID) and this will be recorded on the Person table. The staff identifier will also be used on the Contract table to identify which person this contract belongs to. In order to ensure the integrity of this structure, the following checks will be applied to each institution's return:

  • On the Person table, no two records can have the same STAFFID
  • For every STAFFID recorded on the Person table, there must be at least one record with this STAFFID on the Contract table
  • Every STAFFID used on the Contract table must exist on the Person table
  • Every GRADID used in the Contract table must either exist in the institution's Grade table or be one of the generic codes for other (mainly national) grades.

For certain groups of staff only a subset of fields is required on either table. This is summarised in the diagram below. Further details are contained in a separate document the Summary of field requirements for different types of staff. The selection of appropriate fields will therefore depend on an individual's circumstances. The record specification has been devised in such a way that institutions are required to return a valid entry in all fields for all staff. Where appropriate default values are available and the notes to each field set out the circumstances in which these defaults should be used.

Red=Person Table
Blue=Contract Table

An institutions Grade table will record each local grade, including details of the salary range associated with the grade. Contracts are linked to the Grade table through GRADID in the Contract table and INSTGRAD in the Grade table. This allows HESA to determine the grade associated with each member of staff’s contract (where applicable) and the salary range associated with that grade. Furthermore by completing SPOINT and /or SALREF it will also be possible to determine where the member of staff's salary falls within the salary range of the grade associated with their contract.

Grades defined with reference to JNCHES pay spine

The salary range for each grade will need to be provided in one of two ways. If a grade is defined with reference to points on the JNCHES pay spine then these should be returned within SPOINT. Details of the minimum spine point, maximum spine point and spine point of any "contribution related pay threshold" are required. If contribution related pay is not applicable then only the minimum and maximum need be provided. Under these circumstances data returned in GRADID will indicate the grade of the contract, data returned in SPOINT will indicate the salary associated with the contract and data returned in the Grade table will indicate the salary range associated with the grade of their contract.

Where the minimum is a spine point but the maximum is higher than the maximum of the JNCHES spine (i.e. above point 51), then the monetary value of the maximum should be provided within the MAXSAL field. Also if the member of staff’s salary is also higher than the maximum of the JNCHES spine, institutions should return this value within SALREF. If the salary is below the maximum of the JNCHES spine then this should be returned within SPOINT.

Where institutions have defined grades with reference to the JNCHES pay spine but have then amended the associated monetary values, for example to consolidate London weighting, institutions are required to provide both spine point and monetary value information. Under these circumstances SPOINT must be completed as well as the SALREF field.

Grades defined without reference to JNCHES pay spine

If grades are defined without reference to the JNCHES pay spine institutions are required to provide minimum, maximum and any "contribution related pay threshold" (if applicable) as monetary values in pounds sterling. Under these circumstances salary information is returned within SALREF.

There is no requirement for institutions to provide details of any nationally recognised grades that they use (for clinical academics and from outside the HE sector); the GRADID field in the Contract table includes a number of generic codes to be used in these cases. For clinical academics (paid on the Clinical pay spines circulated by UCEA), SPOINT must be completed and not SALREF. For other staff on nationally recognised grades outside the HE sector SALREF must be completed and not SPOINT.

Further information about contribution related pay can be found on the UCEA website at: http://www.ucea.ac.uk/en/Publications/

Staff record muster

The new Staff Record will operate a simple year-on-year muster. If a person is returned in one year and is not recorded as a leaver on all of their contracts, then a record will be expected for that person in the following year's collection. For a person to be removed from the muster, all of their contract records must contain leaving information.