Appendix 1
Brighton & Hove City Council Pay Policy Statement 2024/25
1 Aim
Brighton & Hove City Council wants to ensure that the City and its residents receive high quality services and excellent value for money. In the context of the significant budget challenges that the council faces, pay levels need to be set at a level that will enable the council to attract and retain high calibre individuals while remaining prudent in its use of public funds.
To achieve this, the council requires a workforce that is conscientious, professional, and reliable at all levels and which has the relevant up-to-date skills and knowledge to deliver high quality services to the residents of and visitors to Brighton & Hove.
The council depends on a high calibre senior management team able to provide leadership and to work in close partnership with other private, public and voluntary agencies across the City. The senior team need to work with partners to assess and understand the level of need across the City and to commission and deliver services. At the same time, they need to be able to lead change programmes and reduce costs to deliver better outcomes for customers. An innovative, skilled and experienced workforce is vital to the delivery of our vision and this is at the heart of our pay policy. This principle applies from the lowest to the highest paid employee.
Whilst recognising the market rates for pay and seeking to attract the best talent, the council seeks to ensure that pay policies are based on fairness and equality and allow the workforce to live healthy and happy lives. The council has worked to address low pay and ensure that the pay gap between the highest and the lowest paid is appropriate and justified. As at April 2023 the council’s lowest pay point £12.59, is 15.5% higher than the April 2023 ‘Real Living Wage’ of £10.90, and 20.8% higher than the 23/24 National Living Wage Rate of £10.42. Note the NLW is due to increase to £11.44 from April 2024. The pay multiple between the Chief Executive and the median earnings of the rest of the workforce will be published annually on the council’s website.
2 Scope
This document complies with the council’s statutory responsibility to produce a pay policy statement annually pursuant to s38(1) of the Localism Act 2011. This policy statement requires approval by full Council. The council wishes to ensure that local taxpayers are able to take an informed view on all aspects of the council’s remuneration arrangements and the pay policy statement will be published on the council’s website.
The statement applies to all employees of the council and ‘casual workers’, except for those staff based in schools and apprentices throughout the council.
For the purposes of the pay policy statement the following definitions will apply:
· The publication of the ‘pay multiples’ provides a calculation in the form of a ratio between the median average earnings across the organization, and the highest paid employee and was recommended by the Hutton report on Fair pay.
Senior Structure
With effect from 1st April 2024, the Corporate Leadership Team comprises the following posts:
· Chief Executive;
· Corporate Director – Families, Children and Learning (incorporating Director of Children’s Services (DCS) role);
· Corporate Director – Housing, Care and Wellbeing (incorporating Director of Adult Social Services (DASS) role);
· Corporate Director – City Services
· Corporate Director – Corporate Services
The Corporate Leadership Team also includes the Chief Finance Officer and the Director of Human Resources & Organisational Development, both of whom report to the Corporate Director – Corporate Services.
The Extended Corporate Leadership Team comprises members of the Corporate Leadership Team and Assistant Directors (Link to structure chart). The Leadership Network for the council comprises the Chief Executive, Corporate Directors, Assistant Directors and those that report to them and are also on a senior management grade (M7 and above).
National Pay and Conditions
There are a number of national agreements produced through collective bargaining arrangements for different groups of local government staff. The main negotiating bodies relevant to our workforce and their scope are listed below. Brighton & Hove City Council operates these national conditions as amended by local agreements.
The National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services negotiates collective agreements on pay and conditions for local authority employees who are not covered by other specialist negotiating bodies (e.g. teachers).
The Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Officers of Local Authorities (JNC) covers the pay and conditions for Chief Officers as well as other members of ELT and Assistant Directors.
The Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Executives of Local Authorities covers the pay and conditions for Chief Executives.
The Soulbury Committee negotiates the pay and conditions for advisory staff in local authorities, such as: educational improvement professionals (previously advisers and inspectors) and educational psychologists.
The Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers covers the pay and conditions of youth and community workers.
4 Governance
While full Council formally approves the Council’s Pay Policy Statement, Cabinet is responsible for setting policy on pay and conditions of employment within Brighton & Hove City Council. The council has adopted the National Joint Council terms and conditions for local authority staff as amended locally. Chief Officers, including the Chief Executive, are mainly employed on nationally negotiated JNC terms and conditions but their pay structure is determined locally.
The relevant sub-committee, committee or the Chief Executive approves the appointment of staff in accordance with the Officer Employment Procedure Rules. The council has adequate systems in place through the Appointment & Remuneration Panel to ensure value for money.
The Appointments and Remuneration Panel may also be consulted for its views in connection with the statement of pay policy as defined in the council’s Constitution. The policy in respect of the remuneration of interims and consultants is set out under paragraph 20 below.
5 Grading Structure
The council uses a recognised, analytical job evaluation scheme to ensure that there is an objective process for determining the relative size of jobs and thus allocating jobs to the appropriate grade. This is used for all posts, apart from staff employed on Teachers, Soulbury and Youth Worker conditions of service. The current pay and grading structure was implemented in September 2022.
6 Progression
All posts, apart from that of the Chief Executive are employed on grades containing spinal column points. All employees (other than the Chief Executive) progress through their grade each year (subject to satisfactory performance), rising by one incremental point, until they reach the maximum point of the grade. Pay awards for NJC, JNC, Soulbury and Teaching staff are negotiated nationally. Where a member of staff is the subject of formal disciplinary and capability processes, increments may be withheld.
With the exception of Soulbury and Teaching staff employees may be accelerated up the pay grade by a maximum of two spinal column points to recognise exceptional performance. Link to Additional Payments Policy. National terms and conditions for Soulbury and Teaching Staff incorporates specific requirements around progression related to performance.
7 Remuneration on Appointment
Staff are usually appointed on the minimum spinal column point of the grade. However line managers have discretion to appoint above the minimum of the grade including where there are difficulties recruiting to a post or where an individual can demonstrate significant valuable previous experience.
The Chief Executive is required to consult the council’s Appointments & Remuneration Panel on the appropriate starting salary for any new permanent Corporate Leadership Team appointments or any other proposal to offer a permanent appointment with a salary package of £100,000 or more.
The Chief Executive’s salary is set to ensure that it is competitive when compared to roles of similar size and complexity elsewhere and with regard to the challenges, additional hours and working arrangements required to achieve the requirements of the role. The salary is on a single fixed salary point. Nationally negotiated cost of living awards are applied.
The Chief Executive may receive a fee for acting as the Returning Officer at elections. Fees for local elections are set using the East Sussex Scale of Election Fees & Charges. National election fees are set by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Full Council is required to approve the appointment of the Chief Executive following the recommendation of such an appointment by the Appointment & Remuneration Panel.
9 Corporate Leadership Team
The pay and grading of the Corporate Leadership Team is determined by the requirements of the role and by reference to the labour market for roles of a similar size and complexity. Corporate Directors progress to the next point of their grade scale subject to satisfactory performance in the role as determined by the Chief Executive. Once at the top of the scale they continue to receive the JNC for Chief Officers nationally negotiated cost of living awards.
10 Assistant Directors
The pay structure for posts at this level ensures the council is able to attract and retain staff with the suitable skills and experience to deliver the council’s many services. Nationally negotiated cost of living awards are applied.
11 Additional Payments
In order to ensure sufficient flexibility to reward staff who are undertaking additional responsibilities, the council’s policy on Additional Payments provides for Acting Up payments or a one-off Honorarium Payment to be made in specific circumstances.
12 Market Supplements
The Council may pay a market supplement, in accordance with the council’s market supplement policy, where there are proven shortages of individuals with particular skills and experience.
13 Travel and Expenses
The Council is committed to becoming a carbon neutral city and promoting healthy and sustainable travel. This means that when employees are required to travel, they should be aware of choosing the most cost-effective, efficient and sustainable ways of travelling, both to and from work and within the working day.
Staff should first ensure that travel is necessary
and that the intended outcome could not be achieved by other means,
such as email or telephone or video-conferencing. Where travel is
necessary, staff should make optimum use of diary planning to
minimise the number of business travel journeys made and should
explore walking, cycling, public transport options before using a
car.
Where authorised to do so, employees are entitled to be reimbursed for mileage they incur whilst discharging their official duties. This does not include mileage to or from home to their normal place of work. The rate of reimbursement will depend on the engine size of their car, while other rates are applicable where motorbikes and bicycles are used for this purpose. Employees who have to use public transport to travel for their role are entitled to reclaim the costs of the transport under the council’s expenses policies.
14 Working Pattern Allowances
The council introduced its current allowance scheme for those employed on NJC terms and conditions on the 01 October 2013; these allowances reward employees who work outside the council’s standard working week, which is Monday to Friday between 6am to 8pm each day. Working outside of these standard times will attract an enhancement to the hourly rate. Details can be found in the Employee Rights & Responsibilities document.
15 Annual Leave
Annual leave entitlements vary according to the terms and conditions of employment. Annual leave entitlements are published on the Council’s website.
16 Pension Scheme
Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme is subject to the rules of the scheme and contribution rates are set by the East Sussex County Council Pension Fund (Link to rates on ESCC Website).
17 Redundancy, Retirement and other Compensation Payments
The council’s approach to dismissals on the grounds of redundancy or efficiency of the service and in the case of early retirement can be found in the following policies on our website: Redundancy, Retirement and other Compensation Payments policy statement and Retirement at Brighton & Hove.
It is the council’s policy that employees who accept a financial package on voluntary termination of their employment with the council are not re-employed or engaged as a self-employed contractor or through an agency for a minimum period of two years; details of this policy can be found in the Re-Employment of Employeespolicy
In exceptional circumstances, the council will agree to settle a claim or potential dispute upon the termination of employment by way of a compensation payment. In this situation, an officer panel comprised of the Director of Human Organisational Development (or their delegate), the Monitoring Officer (or their deputy) and the S151 Chief Finance Officer (or their deputy) will review a business case prepared by the relevant Chief Officer. While the officer panel will scrutinise the business case and may endorse it, make recommendations regarding it or advise against it, responsibility for the final decision remains with the relevant Chief Officer.
Where a Special Severance Payment of between £20,000 and £100,000 is made to any officer then as well as being approved by the Chief Executive, a record shall be made of the approval of the Leader or any other member agreeing it. All Special Severance Payments of over £100,000 and any compensation packages in excess of £100,000 which relate to the Chief Executive must be approved by full Council.
18 Pay Protection
In cases where an employee is redeployed into a lower graded role due to their original role being made redundant, theannual protection payment will be the difference between the employee’s normal contractual pay in the former post and the normal contractual pay of the new post in year 1; and in year 2 it will be 75% of this value. After which the employee will be paid at the top of the grade for the role they’ve been redeployed into.
An employee will have the amount of their protection re-calculated should their pay details change at any point during the protection period so that their amount of pay does not exceed the pay they received in the role they were made redundant from.
19 Job Evaluation
The council grades all NJC and JNC Chief Officer roles using a job evaluation scheme to ensure roles of equal value are paid equitably. The council’s allowance scheme sets out circumstances where individuals are entitled to payments beyond their basic grade.
20 Remuneration of Staff – Contract for Services
Individuals employed on a contract for services will be paid at a rate consistent with the pay of directly employed staff performing a comparable role and will consider where relevant, a premium to take into account any relevant market factors. It is the council’s policy to minimise the use of consultants wherever possible and the approval of the Chief Executive is required prior to any commitment to expenditure on consultants in excess of £10,000.
21 Remuneration of Staff and Pay Multipliers – Publication of Information
The council publishes details of staff earnings in accordance with legal requirements on transparency. This includes the relationship between the remuneration of Chief Officers and the median salary of our workforce. The ‘pay multiple’ will be calculated each year and published on the Council’s website. Historical information will be retained in order to monitor the pay multiple over time.
Further information is contained in the Statement of accounts in accordance with the Audit of Accounts legislation.
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 requires all local authorities with more than 250 employees to publish gender pay gap data based on a ‘snapshot’ date of 31 March of the previous year to the year in which the data is published.
The gender pay gap is defined as the average pay gap between male and female staff in hourly pay. The council is required to publish the mean and median differences between male and female employees and the proportions of each gender in each pay quartile.
Further requirements stipulate the need to publish information related to bonuses received by each gender, however the council does not pay bonuses, and as such the council does not report under these headings.
The council publishes ethnicity pay and disability gap reports on a voluntary basis.
For further information please see the most recent. Gender Pay Gap Report Gender Pay and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports.