Agenda for Appointments and Conditions of Service Committee on Tuesday, 7th February, 2023, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions

Contact: Mark Leavesley 

Items
No. Item

31.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor David Mellen - other Council business

Councillor Corall Jenkins - other Council business

Richard Henderson - other Council business

 

32.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

None.

33.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 183 KB

Last meeting held on 21 December 2022 (for confirmation)

Minutes:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 21 December 2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

34.

Pay Policy Statement 2023-24 pdf icon PDF 335 KB

Report of Director of HR and EDI

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Daljit Singh Nijran, Organisational HR Manager, and Sheena Yadav-Staples, HR Consultant, presented the report introducing the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2023/24, as required under the Localism Act 2011.

They made the following points:

 

(a)  the Pay Policy Statement 2023/24 is a factual document, providing information on pay and conditions for Chief Officers in comparison with the bulk of the workforce employed on ‘Local Government Services’ (LGS) terms and conditions;

 

(b)  the Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities prepare and publish a Pay Policy Statement by 31 March each financial year. The statement must be approved formally by Full Council itself, it cannot be delegated to a sub-committee;

 

(c)  the data for the statement is taken as at 31 October 2022, and includes retrospective pay information from 1 April 2022 to 31 October 2022 to ensure consistency and comparability with previous years;

 

(d)  key findings included:

 

  i.  the gap between the highest paid officer, the Chief Executive, and the Council’s non-Chief Officer average (mean) earner has narrowed from a pay multiple of 6.71:1 in 2022/23 to 6.59:1 in 2023/24;

 

  ii.  the pay multiple of the average (mean) Chief Officer’s pay to that of the non-Chief Officer average (mean) earner has reduced from 3.32:1 to 3.12:1;

 

  iii.  in 2022/23, the pay multiple of the City Council’s Chief Executive to that of the non-Chief Officer median earner was 7.64:1. Compared to the six other Core Cities in England that published this data for 2022/23, Nottingham is in the middle with the fourth narrowest pay multiple. When statements are published for 2023/24, this can be updated;

 

(e)  as the data is at 31 October 2022, it does not cover the pay-award from 1 November 2022, when the National Joint Council for Local Government Services pay agreement was confirmed;

 

(f)  in its Pay Policy Statement for 2022/23, the Council committed to undertaking a review of the pay grading structure for Chief Executive, Corporate Director and Strategic Director roles. The scope of this review expanded to consider recruitment and retention difficulties being experienced amongst the wider workforce. A revised grading structure is currently progressing through the consultation and negotiation stage with the Council’s recognised Trade Unions in anticipation of implementation during 2023/24, subject to final approval of the Council’s budget;

 

(g)  the Pay Policy Statement for 2023/24 is due to be presented at Full Council on 6 March 2023, after which it will be published on the Council’s website and on Open Data Nottingham. The Committee is asked to note the statement.

 

The Committee discussed the following points:

 

(h)  the grading structure review may produce significant changes from last year’s pay award, which could narrow the differentials further. The whole structure is under review however, so it is not yet clear how changes will balance each other;

 

(i)  members asked for confirmation of the figures for the additional payments made to the Council’s Chief Officers. These were confirmed as correct and officers clarified that these figures were in total for all Chief Officers, and not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

35.

Exclusion of the public

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration

of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the

circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption

outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

Minutes:

The Committee agreed to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

36.

Exempt minutes

Last meeting held on 21 December 2022 (for confirmation)

Minutes:

The Committee agreed the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 21 December 2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.