To approve the pay policy statement for publication.

Council considered a report by the chairperson of the employment panel to approve the pay policy statement for 2021.

The report and recommendation was moved by the Leader (as chairperson of the employment panel) and seconded by the cabinet member for finance and corporate services.

During the discussion it was requested that in future versions of the report the hourly rate reflects productive officer time and deducts elements such as annual leave, training and team sickness. The Leader explained that he would discuss the request with the Assistant Director People.

The pay policy statement was put to the vote and approved unanimously.

RESOLVED – That:

(a)  the pay policy statement at appendix A is approved for publication.

To recommend the 2021 pay policy statement to full council for approval and publication.

The assistant director, people, introduced the report and

·         It is a requirement of the Localism Act 2011 that the council publishes a statement which sets out its approach to pay.

·         It is important to note that this policy does not in itself change how we do things. It is a statement of what is already in place.

·         The role of employment panel is to recommend the policy to full council at its meeting in February 2021 and afterwards the statement will be published on the council’s website.

·         There are no significant changes in the policy since it was brought last year.

·         Based on the feedback received last year the ratio between the highest and lowest paid and how that compares with other local authorities in the region or nearby have continued to be reported to the panel.   It was noted that the council’s ratio is the one of the lowest.

·         More information about the market forces supplements which are in place including the review dates has been included.

It was encouraging to see that the pay ratios were lower than in most councils.  It was explained that there were two potential ways in order to reduce the ratio further which were:

1.    Decreasing the chief executive’s salary; or

2.    Eliminating the grades at the bottom of the pay scale.

It was noted that as the pay increases were nationally agreed, then the ratio between the lowest paid and the chief executive’s pay would remain consistent.   It was further noted that approximately two years ago the National Joint Council (NJC) had introduced new pay scales which had reduced the gap so recent work had been undertaken nationally to reduce the gap.  

The issue of market forces supplements (MFS) was discussed and it was noted that MFS were attached to posts and not the people in the posts.   MFS were only used if they were warranted or had been benchmarked against other posts.   The majority of the MFS were in the children’s social work area and there may be some in place for senior manager posts as they were subject to the most nuanced recruitment processes.    It was the aim of the council to keep MFS in force at their lowest possible number.

It was noted that details of the gender pay gap were not included within the report.   It was explained that there were two different processes in place and the gender pay gap information would be reported in January 2021.   The employment panel requested that details of the gender pay gap be included within the pay policy statement in future.

Following a query from a panel member, it was confirmed that there were good provisions and policies in place for those staff who wished to request flexi working arrangements.    The employment panel requested that at a future meeting, a workforce report be presented.

RESOLVED that

the pay policy statement at appendix A is recommended to full council