Agenda item

To receive a report from the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste and Operations Manager of Human Resources.

Cabinet had before it a report * from the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste and Operations Manager of Human Resources on the Pay Policy.

The Leader of the Council outlined the contents of the report with particular reference to the following:

·         To comply with the legislative requirements of the Localism Act 2011 relating to senior pay in particular the role of the Chief Executive, Directors and other senior officers. The Localism Act 2011 required an annual published Pay Policy which had been adopted by the Full Council.

·         The purpose of a Pay Policy was so that the pay and related awards structure of the Council were transparent. The Pay Policy was detailed in Appendix 1.

·         There had been a recent change and a reset of the structure of Leadership team, following the decision to delete one post from the team, which was reflected in the new data detailed in the Pay Policy. This had resulted in existing Directors taking on additional responsibilities and delivers savings in the cost of the Council’s most senior officers.

·         A reset of the Corporate Management team was currently underway at the time of publication of the report and affected staff have been consulted on proposed changes.

·         The gender mean pay gap is 0.97% for the Council compared to 7.7% nationally. The Council therefore was in a considerably stronger position than many other organisations.

·         All pay review of senior management go through South West Councils for assessment and validation of wage changes, recommendation and comparator data analysis take place and benchmarking for any pay changes.

·         The cost saving for the Council would be significant with this structure and with the existing directors taking on additional responsibilities.

The Chief Executive highlighted the following:

·         He noted the report could have provided more context on the points raised that evening.

·         A decision was made in October 2023 to reduce the cost of senior management, the Chief Executive was tasked with realigning and redistributing various legal duties and responsibilities to ensure the organisation met its obligations. 

·         The revised roles were submitted to South West Councils as all senior management roles are assessed externally in order to allow benchmarking and foundations.

·         The cost of the Leadership Team could have been £344,344,720 in 2023/2024, with the new structure this had been reduced to £299, 000, 00 with a saving of over £45,000 with a structure that has been verified from the Local Government Association and South West Councils.

Discussion took place regarding:

·         The methodology that was used to benchmark the cost of the roles.

·         South West Councils started the remuneration from scratch to decide where the remuneration would be suitable.

·         Disappointment with the large scale of remuneration that the Directors would receive given the financial cost to the Council.

·         The result in existing Directors taking on additional responsibilities and the impact of this on their workloads.

RESOLVED that:

·         The Cabinet is asked to recommend to Council the Pay Policy 2023.

(Proposed by the Leader of the Council)

Reason for Decision:

In accordance with Article 14 of the Constitution. The Head of Paid Service (Chief Executive) was required to keep under review the number, grade and organisation of officers, as well as the manner in which the Council’s functions were co-ordinated and discharged.

Note * Report previously circulated.