Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

There were no apologies for absence received.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 March 2021.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 23 March 2021 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest received.

To answer any public questions

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions

There were no Member questions.

To consider the Annual Pay Policy Statement 2021.

Joelle Cooper, HR presented the Annual Pay Policy Statement 2021.

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·       An improved methodology had been applied for that year, in that the full time equivalent salary had been used for the purposes of data comparison, ensuing a more robust and accurate method for like for like salary comparison between officer pay.

·       This year a new baseline had been set for data analysis that could be used as a comparator for future years.

·       The gap between the highest paid officer and the lowest paid officer continued to diminish, primarily through changes applied to the National Minimum Wage each year.

·       The mean salary continued to change.  This could be attributed to changes in general recruitment and retention movement throughout the year.  Covid response and recruitment requirements had also contributed to changes, as well as general organisational structures.

·       The essence of the Pay Policy remained unchanged from the previous year.

·       There would be more of a focus on the Council’s general approach to pay and reward strategy to ensure that the Council best supported and underpinned its best ability to deliver against the Corporate Delivery Plan and the People Strategy.

·       With regards to managers having discretion to appoint new staff at a level above the minimum salary and managers having discretion to withhold incremental increases in the event of unsatisfactory performance, Councillor Weeks questioned how often this took place and at what level of staff.  Joelle Cooper indicated that she would feed back to the Board.  Members were reminded that managers would be operating within set pay bands.

·       In response to a question from Councillor Kaiser, Joelle Cooper indicated that the full time equivalent salary was used in the preparation of the Gender Pay Gap Report.

·       Councillor Bishop-Firth asked how much support and control there was for managers exercising their discretion in either appointing at above the minimum level or withholding incremental increases.  Joelle Cooper indicated that it was managers discretion as to which entry point within the pay band that they appointed to.  However, the withholding of increments would be discussed with HR and would be aligned with a performance management process.

·       Councillor Bishop-Firth sought clarification regarding redundancy pay.  Joelle Cooper agreed to feed back.

RESOLVED:  That the Personnel Board approve the Pay Policy Statement 2021 and recommend its agreement to Full Council on 22 July 2021.

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) as appropriate.

RESOLVED:  That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) as appropriate.

To consider the Agency Worker Usage - Quarter 4 report.

The Board received the Agency Worker Usage Quarter 4 report.

RESOLVED:  that the Agency Worker Usage Quarter 4 report be noted.