Pay policy statement (2022/23)

This policy statement is provided in accordance with Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011.

North Northamptonshire Council is in the process of developing its own pay and grading structure and accompanying terms and conditions of employment.

Therefore, this statement sets out the council’s policies relating to the pay and conditions for its workforce at the current time and will be updated and re-published during 2022/2023 once the new pay, terms and conditions of employment have been determined.

The purpose of the statement is to provide transparency with regard to the council’s approach to setting the pay of its directly employed workforce for 2022/2023.  In particular:

• the remuneration of chief officers
• the remuneration of the lowest-paid employees
  and
• the relationship between the remuneration of chief officers and employees who are not chief officers.

Overview and principles

The council has committed to becoming an employer of choice which will help it to attract and retain talented employees to deliver its objectives. It is committed to ensuring a fair and transparent approach in determining pay policy.

In designing future pay arrangements, key principles include:

• Being fair, reasonable and transparent; 
• Affordability. 
• Rewarding employees for their contributions and achievements; 
• Maintaining rates of pay which are competitive in attracting and retaining critical skills and talent.

Scope

This statement covers all employees with the exception of employees based in schools with delegated budgets.

Definitions

Definitions for the purpose of this pay statement are as follows:

'Pay' in addition to salary includes charges, fees, allowances, benefits in kind, increases in enhancements to pension entitlements, and termination payments. It does not include any employer pension or national insurance contributions.

'Chief Officer' refers to the following roles within the council:

'Employees who are not a Chief Officer' refers to employees who are not covered under the Chief Officer detailed in the table 1.  This includes the lowest paid employees*.

'Lowest paid employees' refers to employees who TUPE transferred into the council and employees directly appointed by the council since April 2021 on interim pay terms.  The lowest rate of pay within the Council (with the exception of those paid the statutory apprenticeship rates) is in line with the Living Wage Foundation* rate for 2020/21, £9.50 per hour.

*Foundation Living Wage was uplifted to £9.90 per hour, effective 1 April 2022.

Remuneration 

Chief Officers

Where a senior post is being appointed to and will be remunerated in excess of £100,000, Full Council are given the opportunity to consider the salary range that will be offered. This ensures that there is adequate transparency and accountability from elected members who are directly accountable to the electorate.

Full Council has delegated authority to the Employment Committee to make appointments to Chief Officers. They will be able to make an offer of remuneration within the salary range agreed by Full Council.

Chief Officer roles have been evaluated using the nationally recognised Hay Job Evaluation Scheme to ensure:

• posts are graded and rewarded financially through a fair and non-discriminatory process
• there is consistency in treatment between posts
  and 
• the Council complies with equal pay legislation.

Chief Officer salaries have been benchmarked against roles in comparable Unitary councils, both in terms of the size and complexity of services delivered.

On appointment, Chief Officer salaries are offered within the relevant benchmarked salary range for the role and commensurate with the candidates most recent salary and experience. The benchmarked salary ranges are set out in Section 10.

The Deputy Chief Executive designation attracts an additional allowance of £10,000 to reflect the responsibilities associated with deputising for the Chief Executive on occasions, in addition to their core responsibilities.

The Chief Executive is the appointed Returning Officer and will receive a fee for administering local and parliamentary elections and referendums. This role is separate from that of Chief Executive and carries with it personal accountabilities. The fee paid will vary but will be determined in accordance with the relevant scales of fees agreed by the Shadow Executive Committee on 3 February 2021. For national elections and referendums, fees are met by the body responsible for funding the poll.

Employees who are not a Chief Officer

Full Council has responsibility for determining pay, terms and conditions for North Northamptonshire Council and has delegated authority to the Head of Paid Service to negotiate and agree them. 

Negotiations on these pay, terms and conditions are ongoing with the recognised trade unions at this time. 

Pending a new set of pay, terms and conditions for the Council, new starters and internal job changers since 1 April 2021 are appointed in accordance with the Council’s interim recruitment protocol.  The scale point at the bottom of the pay range that applied to the post before it became vacant will be used to determine the spot salary and pay allowances applicable to the role.

The remaining workforce transferred to the Council under The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) arrangements. They have the right to retain their existing pay, terms and conditions. 

Pay Awards

The council will adjust pay levels to take account of any cost-of-living increase set by statutory pay order or negotiated nationally by:  

• the JNC for Local Authority Chief Executives  
• the JNC for Chief Officers of Local Authorities 
• the NJC for Local Government Service
• Soulbury Committee
• the Department of Education for unattached (centrally employed) teachers

This will apply to employees on TUPE protected ‘nationally agreed’ pay terms and conditions and new starters since 1 April 2021.

Severance Payments

The North Northamptonshire Council Constitution delegates authority to the Head of Paid Service to agree and make severance payments. Where a severance payment is in excess of £100,000, Full Council are given the opportunity to consider it prior to it being agreed. This ensures that there is adequate transparency and accountability from elected members who are directly accountable to the electorate.

Pay ratios

Pay Multiples are also included in this section as a way of illustrating our approach to pay dispersion.

In accordance with the Local Government Transparency Code (2014) and the Localism Act (2011), the following table shows the highest and median fte salary within the council and the associated pay multiple:

The pay multiple ratio between the salary of the highest paid employee (the Head of Paid Service) and the medium full time equivalent salary of the organisation is 6.6:1.

*this data is based on employees in post as of 31/12/2021 and will be revised once we have pay /remuneration data for a full financial year.

Pay strategy

In determining the pay and remuneration of its employees, the council will comply with all relevant employment legislation. This includes the Equality Act 2010, Part Time Employment (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 and where relevant, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Earnings) Regulations.

With regard to the Equal Pay requirements contained within the Equality Act, the council ensures that all pay arrangements can be objectively justified through the use of job evaluation methods.

The council will take the following approach to assessing individual and overall pay levels:

• to recruit and retain staff in a way which is externally competitive and internally fair
• the appropriate grade for a job is established through a process of job evaluation that takes into account the level of knowledge, skills and accountability required for the role
• in determining the grading structure and setting overall pay levels for all posts, take account of the need to ensure value for money in respect of the use of public expenditure, balanced against the need to recruit and retain employees who are able to meet the requirements of providing high quality services to the community, delivered effectively and efficiently and at times at which those services are required
• the principle of encouraging employees to develop in their role and to improve their performance will inform the design, with pay grades containing a number of pay steps and an annual opportunity to progress up pay steps within the relevant job grade
• any requirement for additional allowance or supplement will be objectively justified by reference to clear and transparent evidence and where market supplements are considered that this is with reference to data available from within and outside the local government sector.
• where different pay arrangements apply to different groups of staff, the reasons will be clearly evidenced and documented.
• policies about termination payments and employer discretions under the Local Government Pension Scheme will be reviewed and published for all staff. These will be produced with the intention of only making additional payments when in the best interests of the Authority and maintaining consistency through all pay grades.

Benchmarked salary ranges

The grade range of the Head of Paid Service, Executive Directors and Statutory Chief Officers is set out below.

*Re-evaluated to reflect change from shared to single role

Additional Information on Chief Officer salaries is published in the local government transparency data at senior salaries.

Publication and Access to Information This Pay Policy Statement will be published on the Council’s website, together with the Council’s pay and grading structure and information relating to senior management remuneration.

Last updated 09 November 2023