Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair advised that there were no items of business on the agenda which would require the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting.

The Chair reported that there were no urgent items of business requiring the consideration of the Committee.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Executive that proposed a fixed term secondment of an officer from the Local Government Association to the role of Assistant Chief Executive up until the end of the 2020 following the resignation, effective from May 2020 of the current post holder, Shokat Lal. It was noted that Mr Lal was leaving the authority in order to take up the post of Executive Director of Core Services at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. The report also detailed a proposed approach to the recruitment of a permanent Assistant Chief Executive later in the year.

It was noted that the post of Assistant Chief Executive was a key role in the Council’s strategic leadership team that provided strategic management of key corporate and support services that were integral in driving improvement across the authority. The role also provided strategic support to the Leader of the Council, Cabinet and to the Overview and Scrutiny function of the Council. It was noted that recruitment process to fill the position would take approximately six months and that given the important work due to be undertaken by the postholder in the period that followed the Borough elections in May 2020 it was proposed that a secondment from the Local Government Association be approved to fill the post at this important time with the recruitment process for a permanent appointment taking place later in the year.

The report noted that during the period of the Commissioner-led Government intervention the Council had received support from Judith Hurcombe, Programme Manager at the Local Government Association, and given Ms Hurcombe’s  extensive experience of working with the Council, along with her varied experience of corporate governance, policy, performance and improvement working with local authorities across the country it was proposed that Ms Hurcombe be seconded to the role of Assistant Chief Executive until the end of the calendar year. It was noted that the Leader of the Council and the Leader of the Opposition had been consulted and were fully supportive of the proposed secondment and the process for recruiting to the post permanently.

Resolved: -

(1)  That, in accordance with Officer Employment Procedure Rule 6.1, Judith Hurcombe be seconded from the Local Government Association to the role of Assistant Chief Executive for the period 20 April - 31 December 2020.

(2)  That authority be delegated to the Senior Officer Appointments Panel to undertake the recruitment and selection process for the permanent appointment of a new Assistant Chief Executive later in the year.

(3)  That the thanks of the Staffing Committee be conveyed to the outgoing Assistant Chief Executive, Shokat Lal, for his service to the Council and the borough of Rotherham since 2016.

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Chief Executive requesting that the Staffing Committee comment on the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for 2020-21 in advance of it being submitted to Council for approval.

It was noted that the Localism Act 2011, Chapter 8 Pay Accountability, made it a legal requirement for authorities to produce and publish a Pay Policy Statement by 31 March each year that this must be agreed by Council and detail the remuneration of its Chief Officers.

The Pay Policy Statement for 2020-21 was attached as an appendix to the officer’s report.

Resolved: - That the Pay Policy Statement for 2020-21, as attached at Appendix 1 of the officer’s report be noted and recommended to Council for approval.

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Chief Executive that met the Council’s obligations under the Gender Pay Reporting Legislation that had been introduced in 2017 requiring employers with 250 or more employees to publish annually statutory calculations showing how large the pay gap was between their male and female employees. It was noted that the Council had up to 12 months following the annual snapshot date of 31 March to publish this information on the Council and Government websites, with the deadline for public sector employers to report for the snapshot date of 31 March 2019 being 30 March 2020. It was noted that a positive pay gap indicated that men were paid more than women and a negative pay gap indicated that women were paid more than men.

The full Gender Pay Gap report for 2019 was attached as an appendix to the officer’s report. The report stated that over the last seven years the Council had seen significant reductions it its Gender Pay Gap, with the mean positive pay gap reducing from 18.2% to 10.6%. It was noted that while this reduction in the gap was welcome, whilst evert there was a gap work would continue to address the imbalance.

The report highlighted key issues from the report for the Committee’s consideration including:

·       The median gender pay gap for the Council at the end of March 2019 was almost the same as the previous year, increasing from 13.3% to 13.4%.   The mean pay gap had also increased from 9.9% to 10.6% after falling from 11.5% the previous year.  It was noted that an analysis of the underlying data had not identified any specific cause that could explain these changes.

·       The Council’s pay gap showed that overall men were still paid more than women, however, the figures compared favourably with the average UK gap 17.3%.

·       In Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees the Council had a negative 8.2% median pay gap and negative 4.3% mean pay gap.  For disabled employees there was a negative 6.6% median and a negative 2.6% mean.  The negative pay gap indicated that both BAME and disabled employees were paid more than non-BME/disabled employees.

It was noted that as no other Council in the region had published data for 2019, benchmarking was only available for 2019, with the benchmarking that had been carried out on the 2018 figures showing that the Councils gender pay gap median figure compared favourably with that of neighbouring authorities.

It was noted that the report was scheduled to be discussed at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on 4 March 2020.

Resolved: -

That the Gender Pay Gap report for 2019, as attached at Appendix 1 of the officer’s report be noted and approved for publication.