Pay policy statement 2023-24

For employees subject to the 'National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service of the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services' (commonly known as the 'Green Book'), the Council uses a pay spine that commences at national Spinal Column Point (SCP) 1 and ends at local SCP 45. This pay spine is divided into 10 pay bands, which each contain between three and six incremental points. Band 1 is the lowest and Band 10 is the highest of these pay grades. Posts are allocated to a pay band through a process of job evaluation. See Appendix A for the current pay bands.

For the purpose of this Policy Statement, employees on Band 1 are defined as our lowest-paid employees. These are the lowest paid employees other than apprentices who are paid in line with national standards to reflect the nature of the training and development role.

The values of the SCPs in these pay grades are updated by the pay awards notified from time to time by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services.

The minimum (pro rata) salary paid by the Council to employees in established posts should not be less than the Real Living Wage which is currently £10.90 per hour. This rate is reviewed and updated annually by the Living Wage Foundation and the new rate is announced in November of each year. Where an employee's contractual (pro-rata) pay is less than the Real Living Wage they receive a supplement to raise their pay to the Foundation Living Wage level (excluding apprentices).

The Council uses the National Job Evaluation Scheme to establish the relative 'sizes' of jobs within the Council. An evaluation results in an overall job evaluation score which is used to rank jobs within the organisation. The overall job evaluation score for a job is used to allocate that job to the appropriate pay grade of the Council's pay structure.