Agenda and minutes

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting of the Staffing Committee held on 23^rd January, 2025 and approve them as a true and correct record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

The Committee requested two amendments to Minute No. 14 – Recruitment of Director of Public Health.

Resolution 2 was amended to read as follows:

(2) In the event that a suitably qualified applicant could not be secured at the agreed salary for the role, consideration could then be given to applying a market supplement.

A further amendment was made to page 2, paragraph 4 of the minutes, replacing the word “amending” with “applying.”

Resolved:-  That the minutes (as amended) of the previous meeting held on 23^rd January, 2025 be approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings for signature by the Chair.

To receive declarations of interest from Members in respect of items listed on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest to report.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any part of the agenda.

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

To consider and accept the Pay Policy Statement for 2025-26, recommend approval of the statement by Council and recommend that the Local Government Pay Award for Chief Officers (JNC) 2025-26 is implemented upon agreement.

Consideration was given to the report presented by the Assistant Chief Executive which provided details of the Pay Policy Statement for 2025-26 that the Council was required to publish under Chapter 8 of the Localism Act 2011.  The Pay Policy Statement must be published following approval by the Council by the 31st March of each year and detail the renumeration of its Chief Officers.

In accordance with the Council’s Scheme of Delegation, the Staffing Committee determined conditions of service, employment policies and procedures and renumeration relating to the Chief Executive and Chief Officers, in line with the Pay Policy Statement

In addition, the Council must approve any salary package, as defined in the Council’s Pay Policy Statement, of £100,000 per annum or more before it was offered in respect of a new post.

The Committee reviewed the Pay Policy Statement for 2025-26 (attached to the submitted report at Appendix 1.) An amendment was agreed to Appendix A of Appendix 1 (in the Director of Public Health/Additional Allowances cell) to include the word “currently” immediately prior to “£20,300 pay supplement”.  With the amendment, the Committee recommended approval by Council.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the Pay Policy Statement for 2025-26 be accepted.

(2)  Recommended:-  That Council approve the Pay Policy Statement 2025-26.

To consider and accept the Gender Pay Gap report and approve publication of the detail at Appendix 1.

Consideration was given to the report presented by the Assistant Chief Executive which provided the detail of the Gender Pay Gap information as at the 31st March 2024 that the Council was obliged to publish under reporting legislation.

In 2017, the Government introduced the Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations which required employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year, showing how large the pay gap in their organisation was between their male and female employees.  A positive pay gap indicated that men were paid more than women and a negative pay gap that women were paid more than men.

The gender pay gap showed the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce regardless of job role. The smaller the value of the gap, the more equal the pay gap was between genders. If a workforce had a particularly high gender pay gap, this could indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with and individual calculations may help to identify what those issues were.

The Council, therefore, had up to twelve months following the annual snapshot date of 31st March to publish this information on the Council and Government website. The deadline to report on details taken at the snapshot date of 31st March 2024 for public sector employers was 30th March 2025.

The Council had, therefore, chosen to include a narrative with its calculations to explain the reasons for the results and details of actions being taken to reduce or eliminate the gender pay gap.

The mean value was based on total pay for the group, divided by the number in the group being measured. The mean gender pay gap for the Council at the end of March 2024 had continued to reduce to 5.5%, from 7.3% in 2023 and 8.5% in 2022.

There was no legislative requirement to publish information on other protected characteristics, however, analysis for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees showed the Council had a negative 6.11% median pay gap and a negative 0.17% mean figure demonstrating that BAME employees on average were paid more per hour. This was due to a higher proportion of BAME workers being employed in the ‘upper’ and ‘upper middle’ quartile.

For disabled employees, there was a negative median of 7.01% and a negative 3.10% mean figure demonstrating that disabled employees were paid more than non-disabled employees by both measures. This was due to a higher proportion of disabled workers being employed in the ‘upper middle’ quartile.

Resolved:-  That the Gender Pay Gap report be approved and subsequently be published (as set out as Appendix 1 to the submitted report).

To determine any item which the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

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