Agenda item

Report of Director of HR and EDI

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 an average for each Chief Officer;

(j)  there appears to have been a slight widening of the Gender Pay Gap and the Ethnicity Pay Gap. There is a report due to provide updated figures on the Gender Pay Gap this financial year;

(k)  the pay scales are fair, with the same pay for those who do the same jobs. The underlying challenge has been to ensure a variety of people are represented at all levels in the organisation, particularly in getting representation at Corporate Leadership Team and Corporate Director level;

(l)  the Council is looking to address the gap through a number of initiatives. There is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy in consultation, there are recruitment and promotion drives, and the Change Academy and Accelerated Development Programme (ADP) are developing the skills of colleagues;

(m) it would be useful to collect data to test the idea of a Class Pay Gap, among the collective pay gap reports. Some organisations have been collecting data on whether an individual is the first person in their family to go to university to inform progressive recruitment strategies. Data on this can be complex, considering the amount of people hired through higher apprenticeships who may not be graduates for example, and due to the lack of comparable national census data.

Resolved to note the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2023/24, which will be presented to Full Council on 6 March 2023.