1. Introduction

The department’s School Counselling Service, comprising school psychologists and school counsellors, supports students in NSW public schools by providing a psychological counselling, assessment and intervention service. The service works collaboratively with principals, teachers, learning and support teams, parents and carers and other agencies to support learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.

School psychologists have psychology qualifications and are employed under the provisions of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (the Act), the Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment Reviewed) Award 2009 (the Public Service Conditions of Employment Award) and the Crown Employees (School Psychologists – Department of Education) Salaries Award 2022 (the School Psychologists Salaries Award).

School psychologists are appointed to a base school. base school principals are responsible for the administrative management of school psychologists, whilst the Senior Psychologist Education (SPE) and Leader, Psychology Practice (LPP) provide professional practice management and clinical supervision to school counselling service staff.

Audience

This procedure will apply to hiring managers, officers within relevant areas of School Workforce and EdConnect/HR Shared Services and describes the principles and processes for determining the prospective school psychologist’s commencing salary, their eligibility for the submission of salary determination applications and the applicable salary rates.

Responsibility and delegation

• The department’s School Workforce directorate will maintain this procedure and oversee compliance, supported by expert advice from the department’s Inclusion and Wellbeing directorate and Student Support and Specialist Programs directorate, as required.
• The department will inform prospective school psychologists, prior to their appointment, of their entitlements under clause 4 of the School Psychologists Award, which includes an entitlement to commence employment on a salary level higher than SP2, for those who hold General Registration. The department will give prospective employees an opportunity to provide evidence that they wish the department to consider in determining their commencing salary level/s, prior to appointment, in accordance with this procedure.
• Hiring managers will apply this procedure whether a prospective employee requests a determination of their commencing salary at time of offer or not. The hiring manager is responsible for communicating the basis on which the commencing salary will be determined at the time the offer is made. In accordance with the Public Service Employee and Administrative Delegations of Authority under the Act, approval for a revised commencing salary will be required from an officer at PSSE 1 level or above.
• The department’s School Workforce directorate will comply with this procedure and clause 4 of the School Psychologists Award when determining the commencing salary level prior to appointment for school psychologists; appropriately communicating these outcomes to and EdConnect/Shared Services HR centres; responding to enquiries for salary determination prior to appointment; and when assessing and processing salary determination applications.

2. Determining salary level based on qualifications and registration with the Psychology Board of Australia (PBA)

Within the NSW Department of Education, school psychologists are public service employees under the Act, the Public Service Conditions Award and the School Psychologists Award.

In accordance with clauses 4.2.1 to 4.2.6 of the School Psychologists Award, the salary for a new school psychologist on commencement of employment will be determined in line with their level of registration with the Psychology Board of Australia (PBA) and ‘relevant experience’ in a psychologist role. Relevant experience is defined at clause 3.17 of the School Psychologists Award as “all experience in a Psychologist role that is relevant to the role of school psychologist, as determined by the Secretary, or their delegate, in their sole discretion.”

Table 1 represents a summary of the salary structure for school psychologists and includes the level of PBA registration and relevant experience required in a psychologist role, applicable to each salary level.

Effective 1 January 2021, all school counselling service staff are required to work towards gaining and/or maintaining Established Certification against the department’s School Counselling Service Professional Practice Framework (PPF). Advanced Certification is voluntary.

PPF certification is not part of the salary determination consideration on commencement of employment unless the school psychologist having previously worked for the department has already achieved Advanced Certification within the last 5 years. For further information see the School Counselling Service Professional Practice Framework (PPF).

School psychologists seeking the School Psychologist Advanced Certification salary level must follow the application process outlined in the School Counselling Professional Practice Framework (PPF) Guide to Advanced Certification.

Enquiries relating to the PPF and obtaining Advanced Certification should be forwarded to: professionalpracticeframework@det.nsw.edu.au.

Table 1 – Salary structure for school psychologists

Calculation of service experience

Once employment commences, school psychologists will progress through the salary structure in accordance with clauses 4.5 to 4.11 of the School Psychologists Award. The service requirement for part-time school psychologists with General Registration is the same for full-time school psychologists. That is, part-time school psychologists with General Registration will progress after one- or two-years’ service in accordance with the requirements under the School Psychologists Award in the same manner as full-time school psychologists.

3. Request for review of commencing salary on appointment

When making an offer of employment to the prospective employee, it is the responsibility of the hiring manager to advise the prospective employee of the provisions of clause 4, including subclauses 4.2.1 to 4.2.6, of the School Psychologists Award and the remuneration structure outlined in Table 1.

At the time of the offer, the hiring manager must advise the prospective employee, that they can provide evidence of relevant experience in a psychologist role, in accordance with the procedure; and that this will be considered in determining their commencing salary prior to finalising the formal offer of employment.

If a prospective employee does not have or does not wish to provide evidence of previous experience to support a commencing salary review application, the commencing salary for a school psychologists will be ordinarily determined in accordance with the School Psychologists Award based on their PBA registration (and if applicable, Advanced Certification against the PPF).

For example, without evidence of prior experience, if the prospective employee has:

• Provisional Registration, they will commence at SP1;
• General Registration, they will commence at SP2;
• General Registration and previously worked for the Department having attained Advanced Certification against the PPF in the last 5 years, they will commence at the salary level of School Psychologist Advanced Certification.

Consistent with the recruitment of all public service employees across the department, the ‘appointment’ phase is the final step in the recruitment process, and the only point at which a higher commencing salary will be considered. The determination of commencing salary must occur during finalisation of the appointment.

After the hiring manager has:

• considered the prospective employee’s evidence of relevant experience (if provided);
• made a recommendation about the commencing salary level to the relevant PSSE 1 (or above) officer;
• received the outcome of the recommendation as to the salary offer;
• made the formal offer of employment inclusive of commencing salary to the prospective employee and
• the contract of employment is signed by the prospective employee and returned to the Hiring manager to progress to the relevant team for action,

no further determination of commencing salary will be available.

A retrospective request for a higher commencing salary will not be accepted after this point.

How does a hiring manager make a commencing salary determination recommendation for a prospective employee?

The hiring manager will refer to Clause 4.2 of the School Psychologists Award and the salary determination decision tree to determine the relevant commencing salary (Appendix A).

The hiring manager will request documented evidence from the prospective employee of their previous relevant experience as a psychologist (for example, a statement of service on employer letterhead or official payslips).

The hiring manager will then make a recommendation in accordance with clauses 4.2.3 to 4.2.5 of the School Psychologists Award in consideration of the information provided on the basis that the evidence provided will support this recommendation.

If the hiring manager concludes that the prospective employee holds General Registration and has relevant experience for a period of two years or more, the hiring manager must recommend that the prospective employee commence at the corresponding salary level in accordance with cl 4.2.3 to 4.2.5.

On receipt of supporting documentary evidence, the hiring manager will complete the School Psychologists Commencing Salary Determination Form which must be endorsed by the relevant director (PSSE 1) or Executive Director (PSSE 2) typically the line management of the hiring manager.

The completed and endorsed form, with all supporting evidence attached, is forwarded to the Student Wellbeing recruitment team at SWRP@det.nsw.edu.au.

The recommendation and supporting evidence will be reviewed by the Student Wellbeing recruitment team and a final determination made. When validating the supporting evidence, the Student Wellbeing recruitment team will seek advice from hiring manager or subject matter experts from the Inclusion and Wellbeing/SSSP directorate as required.

The salary determination will be shared with the hiring manager, who will inform the applicant of the outcome.

The formal offer of employment to the prospective employee, will be inclusive of the commencing salary, as determined in accordance with the procedure. This will provide the prospective employee with the opportunity to consider the final salary outcome prior to finalising their formal acceptance of the offer of employment.

Definitions

Appendix A