Leader of the Council
Minutes:
85.1 The Chief Executive introduced paper MC/21/34 and summarised the recommendations contained within the report.
85.2 Councillor Matthissen asked for clarification of what was meant by ‘modern job titles’ in recommendation 3.3 in the report.
85.3 The Chief Executive clarified that job titles needed to reflect the job being done.
85.4 Councillor Mellen began the debate by stating that he did not feel qualified to assess what levels of pay senior officers should receive and given the information given it appeared that the Council’s salary levels are behind neighbouring authorities which could explain the struggle to recruit to some senior roles and the review of all staff salaries across the organisation gave some level of comfort.
85.5 Councillor Richardson stated that the review was overdue and went some way to address some of the key organisational challenges including recruitment and retention.
85.6 Councillor Morley stated that in 2015 a good number of the Senior Leadership Team where interims who could be employed without Council approval and a lot of hard work had been done since then to replace interims with permanent staff. She felt that the Council needed to invest in their staff and pay them appropriately to keep them.
85.7 Councillor Field stated that interim staff were expensive and implied you do not value permanent staff and in his opinion there were 3 issues which affected recruitment - working environment, reputation and salaries and it did not feel like the environment and reputation were causing the problem so it must be salaries.
85.8 Councillor Welham stated that it was very important to recruit quality staff and he was pleased that the review of all staff salaries had been recommended but this needed to be carried out within the timescales stated.
85.9 Councillor Passmore stated there was a need to recognise productivity and a need to look at value for money but also a need to recruit and retain good staff.
85.10 Councillor Stringer stated that all local government were struggling to recruit so raising salaries may not solve all the recruitment problems.
85.11 On the proposal of Councillor Morley and secondedby Councillor Mellen,
It was RESOLVED:
1.1 That the salary for the Assistant Directors should be set at £78,000 to £90,000 with a scale of 5 points (£78,000, £81,000, £84,000, £87,000, and £90,000)
1.2 That the salary for the Strategic Director should be set at £100,000 to £120,000 with a scale of 5 points (£100,000, £105,000, £110,000, £115,000 and £120,000)
1.3 That the Head of Paid Service be asked to review again the job titles ‘Assistant Director’ and ‘Strategic Director’ to determine whether these should be amended to more modern titles that better reflect the nature of the roles, and in line with job titles adopted by other Councils for similar roles.
1.4 That, subject to approval of recommendations 3.1 and 3.2, it be noted that the Head of Paid Service will commission a review of pay across the whole workforce, as set out in paragraph 5.3; to be completed before 31 March 2023.
1.5 That it be noted, in line with paragraph 5.4, that the Head of Paid Service will commission a review of the pay progression policy for SLT during 2022.
1.6 That the Pay Policy Statement (Appendix C) be approved subject to any consequential amendments arising from the consideration of recommendations 3.1to 3.3 being incorporated.
1.7 Although the Council’s Pay Policy Statement is already reviewed on an annual basis it is recommended that SLT’s pay scales be reviewed in detail at least every 4 years.
Supporting documents: