Agenda item

The Overview and Scrutiny Board are asked to consider the attached report which provides an update on progress of the Pay and Reward Strategy.

Portfolio Holder invited for this item: Cllr Drew Mellor, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Finance.

The Leader of the Council presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. A number of issues were raised by the Board in the subsequent discussion, including:

• A Board Member queried whether or not staff would find themselves at equal pay rates at the same time or if there would be prioritisation across certain service areas. The Leader of the Council explained that there was no definitive date for the implementation of pay equalisation and, in some cases, it was possible that there would be pockets within the organisation where equalisation could occur sooner.
• A Board Member queried whether or not there had been any redundancies made at this point, or if this was still yet to come. The Leader of the Council explained that role mapping had now been completed and that the job descriptions were now all agreed and signed off at director level. No large-scale redundancy programme had taken place at this point, although it was anticipated that such a programme could begin shortly.
• A Board Member queried what the plan was for rates of pay and commented that pay rates should not be reduced in order to save money as this would likely reduce morale amongst staff. The Leader of the Council explained that he was not expecting this part of the process to save a huge amount of money and that as part of the strategy all roles had been re-evaluated.
• A Board Member queried is roles being evaluated were based on BCP Council being a leading council and added that he felt exceptional employees as identified during annual appraisals should be recognised for their hard work. The Leader of the Council assured the Board that by pooling staff into “job families” was an approach that would allow the council to make better use of its resources and would allow the organisation to take a big step forward in its transformation programme. He added that it would also assist the council in becoming more outcomes driven when delivering its services, although he was unsure how the efforts exceptional employees might be recognised and be subsequently rewarded.
• A Board Member queried what form of engagement had taken place with trade unions in producing this strategy and the level of impact that 500-600 job losses would have on the organisation. The Leader of the Council explained that trade unions had responded positively to the Council’s ambition to bring in parity of salary between staff from the predecessor authorities. He detailed that Trade unions were part of a number of different discussions around the pay and reward strategy and played different parts in each depending on the nature of the issue. On top of this, representatives from trade unions had been invited to be part of the senior leadership equalities group. He further added that through the smarter working programme, the impact to the organisation, even though there was the potential for the loss of 500-600 jobs, would be minimalised due to the structures that were being put in place that would make better use of resources.

The Chairman thanked Board Members and the Leader of the Council for their input and added that members of staff had seen a number of changes over the past few years, through shared services, local government reorganisation and now transformation so was pleased to hear that trade unions were involved throughout this programme, particularly at executive level. He wanted to recognise that there had been, and would continue to be some level of uncertainty for staff over these years and looked forward to when this could be concluded in order to provide stability.