To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2023

Decision

The Committee approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2023

Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, introducing the draft Manchester City Council Pay Policy Statement for 2024/25. The report sought approval of the statement prior to its agreement by Council.

The statement proposed took account of the organisational context and the impact of the 2024/25 budget. The statement also set out the direction of travel in relation to pay for Manchester’s officers for the year ahead, in line with the organisational priorities.

The Statement also included information on the Council’s ‘Gender Pay Gap’ and work to proactively promote workforce equality, in accordance with the requirement to carry out Gender Pay Reporting set out within The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.  For the first time, the Council had voluntarily included information on its Ethnicity Pay Gap in line with the government guidance published in 2023

The Chair introduced the report and reminded the Committee that the pay award for 2023/24 was applied differently and involved a fixed sum to each pay scale up to and including SCP 43. Beyond this an uplift of 3.88%had been awarded  on pay points from SCP 44 to SCP 51 and SS Grades 1 and 2 (SCP 11 to 24 inclusive).  For officers falling within the scope of the Joint National Council for Chief Officers and for Chief Executives, a pay award of 3.5% on individual basic salaries had been awarded.

In terms of Gender Pay Gap reporting, the headline figure was a mean gap of 3.6% and median gap of 1.1% . This represented a reduction in the gap between the average pay of men and women from the previous year.  This was significantly below the mean and median gap for the UK of 13.2% and 14.93  respectively

The Council was an accredited ‘Living Wage Employer’ and as such was committed to paying the Living Wage Foundation’s ‘real’ living wage (also known as the Foundation living wage).  In October 2023, the Living Wage Foundation announced the new real living wage hourly rate for the coming year of £12.00 per hour, an increase of £1.10 per hour.  Accredited Living Wage Employers were required to implement the rise by 1 May 2024. The Manchester Living Wage (MLW) would therefore be aligned to the new real living wage rate from 1 April 2024.

Decisions

The Committee:-

(1)       Note the content of the draft Pay Policy Statement 2024-25 and commend it for approval by the Council at its meeting on 20 March 2024.

(2)       Note the organisation’s Pay and Grading Structure for the financial year 2024/25 appended to the draft Pay Policy Statement and commend it for approval by the Council at its meeting on 20 March 2024.

Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which provided a summary of Market Rate Supplements (MRS) currently in place in the Council. 

As of 1 November 2023, there were a total 196 of MRS attached to 26 different roles in the Council.  This equated to an overall reduction of 19 market rate supplements, mainly due to service redesigns.  The total number of roles which received a market rate supplement had decreased by 13, with only 26 roles now attracting market rate supplements.

No analysis by gender, ethnicity or any other protected characteristic has been undertaken because the MRS related to posts rather than individual postholders.

The report set out the rationale for the use of MRS in each service area

Decision

The Committee note the report

Report of the Chief Executive attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which set out proposals to realign senior management within the council and set out the changes to senior posts at SMT level and the resulting reallocation of accountabilities and responsibilities.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer (Carol Culley) had announced her decision to resign and her last day in work will be 15th March 2024.  Carol had held this position since 2019 and whilst she had been successful in contributing to the delivery of the Council’s priorities, it was always recognised that there were very few people who could be successful in the combined position of Deputy Chief Executive, City Treasurer, and the statutory responsibility as section 151 (s 151) officer due to the breadth of responsibility

Under the review it was proposed to separate the role  Deputy Chief Executive (DCX) and City Treasurer (including s 151 responsibilities) into two separate roles.  This was how the senior management team was structured prior to 2019 and separating these responsibilities gave the Council the opportunity to review the focus of each role and realign them with corporate plan priorities.

It was also considered that with the difficult financial context that local government was having to operate within, having a City Treasurer with dedicated focus on helping the Council to meet these challenges now and into the future was the right thing to do.  This would allow the Deputy Chief Executive role focus on providing capacity and support to the Council’s Chief Executive and Senior Management Team, manage corporate services, support digital strategy and transformation as well as leading on high profile major programmes of work.  The role would also play a leading role in our ambitions around zero carbon and equalities.

The role profile for Deputy Chief Executive and the grade has been subject to job evaluation and would remain on the spot salary for this position which was £167,144.  Subject to agreement, it was proposed to advertise the role in line with chief officer member panel recruitment protocols outlined in the constitution.

The creation of the City Treasurer and s.151 officer provided dedicated focus on the management of our finances at a time when local government funding was facing significant challenge. This role would report directly to the Chief Executive, be a member of the Senior Management Team, manage the Finance and Procurement functions and be the Council’s statutory section 151 officer.  A new role profile had been created and subject to job evaluation, the grade was SS5 with a salary of £135,976 to £155,898.

Under the councils redeployment policy, the Deputy City Treasurer was given consideration for the City Treasurer role and had been interviewed under the statutory chief officer member panel recruitment protocol outlined in the constitution and a recommendation was put forward that the committee recommended to Council the appointment of the current Deputy City Treasurer (Tom Wilkinson) to the position of City Treasurer and Section 151 Officer with effect from 1  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.