The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, and Head of Governance left the meeting for the duration of this item.

The Committee considered a report by the Leader on the Review of Chief Officer Salary Levels.

Councillor Clayton addressed the Committee in his role as Leader.

The Leader addressed the Committee and advised of the following:

·         The Statutory Pay Policy 2024 had been considered by Full Council on 27^th March 2024. That policy presented the comparable pay multiple of the Head of Paid Service to the lowest paid employee.

·         The remuneration for the Chief Executive was the lowest in comparison with District Councils in the area.

·         The Statutory Pay Policy 2024 required that the ‘Salary levels will be consistent with similar organisations which aim to pay according to median (average) salaries’.

Paul Clarke, of the Local Government Association, addressed the Committee.  He advised the Committee that:

·         This item had been delayed by the 2024 General Election. Chief Officers’ pay should be regularly reviewed yet had not been done since 2019.

·         Although the areas of work covered by the different Local Authorities, and their Senior Officers, did vary, on the whole the salaries for those roles at NDC remained the lowest.

·         The role of Deputy Chief Executive was also slightly lower (based on the policy) the role of Head of Paid Service / Chief Executive had the greatest disparity.

·         It was important to review the salaries of chief officers in line with the other staff (who had annual reviews).

The Committee discussed:

·         That should any of these roles need to be re-filled, then it would be difficult to do so when the salaries were the lowest in the area. This would provide problems if trying to attract new senior staff.

·         That staff had salary ‘scales’ rather than ‘spot’ salaries as the Chief Officers did.

RESOLVED that;

a)    Members note the independent comparative pay analysis report from the Local Government Association,

b)    That in considering the information contained in (a) above, carry out a review of the Chief Officer Salary levels and following their review, make recommendations to Full Council on the level of remuneration considered appropriate or, if no changes to remuneration are recommended, the changes required to the Statutory Pay Policy to reflect that decision.

c)    Subject to (b) above, if recommendations are made to Full Council that these be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment being included, and

d)    That salary scales be created for the Tier 1 and Tier 2 posts.

The Leader left the meeting.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, and Head of Governance returned to the meeting after this item.