what would be the best negotiation strategy here is the scenario:

We have an issue regarding staffing at The Beeches school. As you know the school comprises 105 pupils and serves the small village of Wilton and surrounding villages. The school has four classes, Reception (class 1), Year 1 and 2 (class 2), Year 3 and 4 (class 3) and Year 5 and 6 (class 4). The school itself has a few problems. For the past two years, pupil results have been dropping. This was due in part to the previous head teacher not having performance management systems in place for the teaching staff. Furthermore, the school budgets have been dramatically reduced in recent years due to falling enrolment numbers. This might mean the Trust considering merging all 3 primary schools to consolidate finances. The impact of this might be staff redundancies. Staffing the 4 classes has also been a huge problem. Class 4 has had several agency teachers over the past year. These teachers are provided by an agency on a daily/weekly basis to the school. Understandably this has concerned the local governing committee and parents. They are worried not only about assessment results but also stability for the children without a consistent teacher to nurture and teach them.

For the past two months, the school (via a teacher agency) used Mr Nathan Collins as teacher for class 4. The children really like him and the current data on student progress points to a significant improvement. The Trust Board is pleased with this progress. Recent recruitment for a permanent class 4 teacher only produced two candidates, Mr Collins being one of them. The second candidate did not perform well on interview or on teaching Whilst I am keen to offer Mr Collins the class 4 teacher role, we need to follow all appropriate rules. The Trust wants to maintain the image of being firm but fair. However, at interview Mr Collins indicated that the advertised salary for the role of 27,500 is not attractive enough and seeks an extra 5,000 per year. This is on the basis that if he worked via the agency, he would receive 32,500 for the same work. He had suggested for the salary advertised he would work on a part time basis of four days per week.

I appreciate that Mr Collins is currently paid more (by the agency) than we are offering but this is because the school would usually expect to pay a slightly lower salary for a permanent full time member of staff than for an agency teacher as agency teachers are paid on a daily rate and so are generally more expensive. My understanding of the school budget is that the increase requested by Mr Collins is manageable for a few years if the school recruits enough pupils. I have investigated the possibility of recruiting a newly qualified teacher. This would cost the school less money. The expected salary for a newly qualified teacher would be 22,000 but that person would need to be released from teaching for half a day per week due to the newly qualified status and another half a day for planning and preparation time. This means that teacher would only work a 4-day week in the classroom.

There are a several very good newly qualified teachers from a local University who are seeking work. However, Mr Collins has been consistent in helping the children achieve better results. This could lead to a better grading with Ofsted and therefore attract more parents to send their children to the school. I recall that the last round of recruitment cost nearly 800 in advertising and staff time in dealing with interviews. I am aware that Mr Collins is currently experiencing a difficult home life as he is going through acrimonious divorce proceedings and he is likely to need to sell his home unless he secures a regular income to pay his mortgage. Please let me have your ideas on a way to move things forward.

employers position?

employers interest?

opponents position?

opponents interest?

employers strengths and weaknesses

any settlement options??