Document

Pay Policy Statement 2024 - 2025

Aim

The purpose of Horsham District Council’s approach to pay and reward is to balance affordability and value for money with achieving the following aims:

Recruit and retain appropriately experienced and qualified employees.
Pay at competitive rates.
Increase motivation and drive service improvements.
Comply with equal pay legislation.

Definitions

The following definitions will apply for this policy: -

‘Pay’ in addition to salary includes charges, fees, allowances, benefits in kind, increases/enhancements to pension entitlements, and severance payments.

‘Chief Officer’ refers to the following roles within Horsham District Council:

Chief Executive*, also Head of Paid Service(1)
Director of Corporate Resources*, also s.151 Officer(1)
Director of Community Services*
Director of Place*
Head of Legal and Democratic Services, also Monitoring Officer(1)

* Members of the Council’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT)
(1) Statutory Officer

‘Lowest paid employees’ refers to those employees employed on pay Grade 2, spinal column point 7, which is the lowest grade of the Council’s pay framework, apart from the National Minimum and National Living Wages. Grade 1 is no longer in use, as those pay points had become uncompetitive or fallen below the National Living Wage (Foundation).

‘Employee who is not a Chief Officer’ refers to all employees that are not covered under the ‘Chief Officer’ group above.

Pay Framework and Remuneration Levels

General approach

Remuneration at all levels needs to be adequate to secure and retain high-quality employees, dedicated to fulfilling the Council’s business objectives and delivering services to the public. This must be balanced by ensuring remuneration is not, nor is seen to be, unnecessarily excessive. Consideration also needs to be given to other non-salary benefits provided to employees.

Responsibilities for decisions on remuneration

Decisions for remuneration for all employees are determined by their manager in consultation with the relevant Director and following the process and principles of the council’s agreed Hay job evaluation scheme.

Salary and pay framework

The spinal column points (SCP) and monetary values are set nationally by the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government services. Pay grades are set locally. The broad Pay and Grading structure was agreed by the then Personnel Committee on 23^rd July 2014.

There are 14 Pay grades:

G2 to G10
SM2 – SM4 (Senior Managers)
Director
Chief Executive

The salary ranges for each of the Grades are detailed in the appended table on Employee Rates of Pay, page 5.

Each employee will be on one of the 14 grades based on the pay grade evaluation of their role. Each Pay grade comprises of several salary points. New employees will normally be appointed on the lowest point of the grade for the role and can progress to the salary maximum of their pay grade, subject to satisfactory performance.

Pay awards are considered annually for all employee categories in negotiation with their relevant national bodies of Trades Unions and Employers’ representatives.

Employees who are not Chief Officers and paid on the NJC spine received a minimum pay award of £1,925 or 3.88 percent from April 2023, whichever was higher.

Chief Officers received a pay award of 3.5 percent from April 2023.

The pay awards for 2024/25 are still under negotiation at national level. On 16 May 2024, the National Employers made “full and final pay offers” to the Staff Sides of the various negotiating groups for which they have responsibility. The offer is essentially £1,290 on all pay points up to SCP 43 on the NJC scale, which is equivalent to SCP 81 on our local pay scale, and 2.50% for all other pay points and groups. For the council’s lowest SCP 7, this would equate to a rise of 5.31%.

Remuneration

Salaries

Salaries are annual and paid in 12 equal monthly instalments.

"Lowest paid employees"

For this statement, each “lowest paid employee” is paid on Grade 2, SCP 7, which is £12.59 per hour, which is above the current National Living Wage (NLW) of £11.44 p.h. (where employees are 21 years of age and above) and the National Living Wage (Foundation) of £12.00 p.h. It is currently council’s policy to pay the National Living Wage (Foundation) as a minimum, for roles that are paid on the NJC spine, and Grade 2 SCP 7 would be adjusted accordingly should the National Living Wage (Foundation) rise above the hourly rate for that pay point.

Casual workers are paid at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for their relevant age group where they are aged below 21 and the National Living Wage (NLW) where they are 21 years of age and above. Where casual workers are fulfilling the full range of duties of a graded role that is paid on the NJC spine, they will receive pay on that grade. In addition, the Council employs apprentices in line with agreed apprentice schemes. Apprentices are paid at least the National Living Wage (NLW).

Other pay elements

Other pay elements include:

Employer’s pension contribution
Essential User Car Allowance (Nationally agreed “Green Book” rates)
Mileage Allowance in line with the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payments
One Professional subscription (where this is required for the function of the role)
Election fees, in the case of the Chief Executive, Director of Resources and the Monitoring Officer.

Election fees are set nationally and locally depending on the type of elections and can vary according to the size of the electorate and number of postal voters; they are separate to salaries for additional election duties.

The salary bands for Directors and Chief Executive include the requirement for out of hour work and to provide a vehicle for work, if so required. A vehicle allowance of £760 p.a. is payable to compensate for travels within district. Travels outside the district will be paid in line with the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payments.

There are no other increases and additions to remuneration for Chief Officers. There are no bonuses or performance-related pay for Chief Officers.

New starters joining the Council

New employees to the Council will normally be appointed to the first point of the salary range for their pay grade. Where a candidate’s current employment package would make the first point of the salary range unattractive (and this can be demonstrated by the applicant in relation to current earnings) or where the employee already operates at a level commensurate with a higher salary, a higher starting pay point within the range for the grade may be considered by the recruiting manager. The candidate’s level of skill and experience should be consistent with that of other employees in a similar position on the salary range.

Any proposal to offer a new senior appointment on terms and conditions that includes a total remuneration package of £100,000 or more, including salary, fees, allowances, and any benefits in kind to which the officer would be entitled because of their employment (but excluding employer’s pension contributions), will be referred to full Council for approval.

Market supplements

The Council has a policy on the use of market supplements. In professions where there is a particular skills shortage, as a temporary arrangement, it may be necessary to consider a market premium to attract and retain high quality employees. Market supplements can be applied to existing employees and/ or to new employees. The final decision as regards any discretion lies with the Chief Executive.

Pension

All employees are automatically enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme unless they choose to opt out.

Severance Payments

The Organisational Change Framework includes details of the general principles of Organisational Design and details of redeployment, redundancy, and early retirements.

All severance payments of £100,000 or more will be voted on at a meeting of Full Council. This will be reviewed in line with any statutory cap that may arise from regulations on Public Sector Exit Payments.

Relationship between remuneration of "Chief Executive" and "employees who are not Chief Officers"

The ratio between the highest paid employee and the median average salary of the whole of the Council’s workforce is currently 4.00 (was 4.20 in 2023/24) and if the employers’ offer for 2024/25 would be implemented, the ratio would equally be 4.00.

The ratio between the highest paid employee and the lowest paid employee is 5.28 (was 5.50 in 2023/24) and if the employers’ offer for 2024/25 would be implemented, the ratio would be 5.14.

Publication of information regarding remuneration of employees over £50,000

The role titles and the pay range of roles with a salary of £50,000 and above are included in the annual accounts and published here.