Agenda and draft minutes

None received.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd October 2024 were confirmed as an accurate record.

We considered the independent review by Anne Phillimore, FCIPD, HR Consultant with a view to making recommendations on the salary structures for Strategic Leadership Team as they are not comparable with other councils in the Gwent area / Borders. 

At the previous meeting the Committee received the summary of recommendations and a PowerPoint presentation from Anne Phillimore (appended to the minutes).

Anne Phillimore is an experienced public sector HR Consultant.  She has undertaken similar reviews in other Welsh Local Authorities and has provided a comprehensive analysis and benchmarking of our remuneration levels against other local authorities. The scope of the independent review is concerned with the remuneration levels for strategic leadership roles including the Chief Executive.  This includes eight roles which are:

• Chief Executive.
• Deputy Chief Executive/Chief Officer, Resources (& s.151 Officer).
• Chief Officer, Children and Young People.
• Chief Officer, Social Care & Health.
• Chief Officer, People, Performance & Partnerships.
• Chief Officer, Law & Governance.
• Chief Operating Officer, Customer, Culture & Wellbeing.
• Chief Officer, Communities & Place.

The recommendations outlined in the independent review for the senior officers are as follows:

Chief Executive Officer – Tier 1

Anne Phillimore has recommended that pay is revised in line with Option 2 because it moves the Chief Executive salary into the lower part of the median quartile, circa £138,000-£148,000. £138,000 would take the salary just into the median quartile and would still be at the lower end of Welsh Council tier 1 salaries but would align more closely with population relativities. This pay range would also have the benefit of substantially reducing the number of organisations paying tier 2 and tier 3 staff above this rate and should increase the number of candidates available for this role in the fullness of time. This scale of increase, although substantial, would both keep Monmouthshire in line with similar organisations and provide some headroom in respect of salary levels at tier 2 and 3.

Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Officer, Resources (s.151 officer) -Tier 2

Anne Phillimore has recommended that pay is revised in line with Option 2 because it moves the tier 2 salary into the lower part if the median quartile circa £112,000-£125,000. This would take the salary just into the median quartile though would still be toward the lower end of Welsh Councils. This scale of increase – although not insubstantial, would both keep Monmouthshire in line with similar organisations and provide some headroom in respect of salary levels at tier 2 and 3. To ensure the acceptability of this increase, posts within the scale could be spot salaries which would control the pay bill; or there could be a scale of two or three points with a gateway beyond which progression would be linked to additional responsibilities – again this would provide some pay bill control.

Chief Officer Children and Young People, Chief Officer Community and Place, Chief Officer Social Care and Health, Chief Officer Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer and Head of Democracy) – Tier 3

Anne Phillimore has recommended that pay is revised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.