Pay policy statement

Brighton & Hove City Council wants to ensure that the City and its residents receive high quality services and excellent value for money. In the context of the significant budget challenges that the council faces, pay levels need to be set at a level that will enable the council to attract and retain high calibre individuals while remaining prudent in its use of public funds. 

To achieve this, the council requires a workforce that is conscientious, professional, and reliable at all levels and which has the relevant up-to-date skills and knowledge to deliver high quality services to the residents of and visitors to Brighton and Hove. 

The council depends on a high calibre senior management team able to provide leadership and to work in close partnership with other private, public and voluntary agencies across the City.  The senior team need to work with partners to assess and understand the level of need across the City and to commission and deliver services. At the same time, they need to be able to lead change programmes and reduce costs to deliver better outcomes for customers. An innovative, skilled and experienced workforce is vital to the delivery of our vision and this is at the heart of our pay policy. This principle applies from the lowest to the highest paid employee.  

Whilst recognising the market rates for pay and seeking to attract the best talent, the council seeks to ensure that pay policies are based on fairness and equality and allow the workforce to live healthy and happy lives. The council has worked to address low pay and ensure that the pay gap between the highest and the lowest paid is appropriate and justified. As of April 2022 the council’s lowest pay point £11.59. This is 17.1% higher than the 2022 to 2023 ‘Real Living Wage’ of £9.90, and 6.3% higher than the 2023 to 2024 rate of £10.90. The pay multiple between the Chief Executive and the median earnings of the rest of the workforce will be published annually on the council’s website.  

This document complies with the council’s statutory responsibility to produce a pay policy statement annually pursuant to s38(1) of the Localism Act 2011. This policy statement requires approval by full Council. The council wishes to ensure that local taxpayers are able to take an informed view on all aspects of the council’s remuneration arrangements and the pay policy statement will be published on the council’s website.   

The statement applies to all employees of the council and ‘casual workers’, except for those staff based in schools and apprentices throughout the council.

For the purposes of the pay policy statement the following definitions will apply: 

Lowest paid employees

Brighton & Hove City Council defines its lowest paid employees as those who are paid on the lowest spinal column point of its grading structure. This is spinal column point 7 and is applied to casual workers as well as employees. A full-time post is based on a 37-hour week. 

View our grading structure for staff pay.  

Chief Officers

Chief Officers,for the purpose of this legislation, are those who report to the Chief Executive and those who report to posts reporting to the Chief Executive, such as deputy chief officers (aside from support roles). 

For the purposes of this pay policy statement the Executive Leadership Team comprises the following posts: 

• Chief Executive 
• Executive Director Families, Children & Learning (incorporating Director of Children’s Services (DCS) role)
• Executive Director Health and Adult Social Care (incorporating Director of Adult Social Services (DASS) role) 
• Executive Director of Economy, Environment and Culture; 
• Executive Director, Governance, People & Resources; and 
• Executive Director of Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities. 

The Executive Leadership Team also includes the Chief Finance Officer and Director of Human Resources & Organisational Development who report to the Executive Director, Governance, People & Resources. 

The Extended Executive Leadership Team comprises members of the Executive Leadership Team and Assistant Directors.

The Leadership Network for the council comprises the Chief Executive, Executive Directors, Assistant Directors and those that report to them and are also on a senior management grade (M7 and above). 

Learn more about our management and structure.

There are a number of national agreements produced through collective bargaining arrangements for different groups of local government staff. The main negotiating bodies relevant to our workforce and their scope are listed below. Brighton & Hove City Council operates these national conditions as amended by local agreements. 

The National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services negotiates collective agreements on pay and conditions for local authority employees who are not covered by other specialist negotiating bodies (for example, teachers). 

The Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Officers of Local Authorities (JNC) covers the pay and conditions for Chief Officers as well as other members of ELT and Assistant Directors. 

The Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Executives of Local Authorities covers the pay and conditions for Chief Executives. 

The Soulbury Committee negotiates the pay and conditions for advisory staff in local education authorities (LEAs). This includes educational improvement professionals (previously advisers and inspectors) and educational psychologists. 

The Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers covers the pay and conditions of youth and community workers. 

The Policy & Resources Committee is responsible for setting policy on pay and conditions of employment within Brighton & Hove City Council. The council has adopted the National Joint Council terms and conditions for local authority staff as amended locally. Chief Officers, including the Chief Executive, are mainly employed on nationally negotiated JNC terms and conditions but their pay is determined locally.  A minority of Chief Officers are employed on NJC terms and conditions, but similarly their pay is determined locally.

The relevant sub-committee, committee or the Chief Executive approves the appointment of staff in accordance with the Officer Employment Procedure Rules. The council has adequate systems in place through the Appointment & Remuneration Panel to ensure value for money. 

The Appointments and Remuneration Panel may also be consulted for its views in connection with the statement of pay policy as defined in the council’s Constitution.  The policy in respect of the remuneration of interims and consultants is set out under paragraph 20 below. 
 

The council uses a recognised, analytical job evaluation scheme to ensure that there is an objective process for determining the relative size of jobs and thus allocating jobs to the appropriate grade. This is used for all posts, apart from those of the Chief Executive and Executive Directors and staff employed on Teachers, Soulbury and Youth Worker conditions of service. The current pay and grading structure was implemented in September 2022. 

View our grading structure for staff pay

All posts, apart from that of the Chief Executive are employed on grades containing spinal column points.  All employees (other than the Chief Executive) progress through their grade each year (subject to satisfactory performance), rising by one incremental point, until they reach the maximum point of the grade. Pay awards for NJC, JNC, Soulbury and Teaching staff are negotiated nationally. Where a member of staff is the subject of formal disciplinary and capability processes, increments may be withheld.   

With the exception of Soulbury Staff whose pay progression is determined by national terms and conditions for Soulbury Staff, employees may be accelerated up the pay grade by a maximum of two spinal column points to recognise exceptional performance.

View our policy on awarding additional payments.

Staff are usually appointed on the minimum spinal column point of the grade. However, where there are difficulties recruiting to a post or where an individual can demonstrate significant valuable previous experience, appointment may be agreed at a higher spinal column point within the grade. 

The Chief Executive is required to consult the council’s Appointments & Remuneration Panel on the appropriate starting salary for any new permanent Executive Leadership Team appointments or any other proposal to offer a permanent appointment with a salary package of £100,000 or more. 

The Chief Executive’s salary is set to ensure that it is competitive when compared to roles of similar size and complexity elsewhere and with regard to the challenges, additional hours and working arrangements required to achieve the requirements of the role.  The salary is on a single fixed salary point.  Nationally negotiated cost of living awards are applied.   

The Chief Executive may receive a fee for acting as the Returning Officer at elections. Fees for local elections are set using the East Sussex Scale of Election Fees & Charges. National election fees are set by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.  

Full Council is required to approve the appointment of the Chief Executive following the recommendation of such an appointment by the Appointment & Remuneration Panel. 

The pay and grading of the Executive Leadership Team is determined by the requirements of the role and by reference to the labour market for roles of a similar size and complexity. Executive Directors progress to the next point of their grade scale subject to satisfactory performance in the role as determined by the Chief Executive Officer. Once at the top of the scale they continue to receive the JNC for Chief Officers nationally negotiated cost of living awards. 

The pay structure for posts at this level ensures the council is able to attract and retain staff with the suitable skills and experience to deliver the council’s many services. Nationally negotiated cost of living awards are applied. 

In order to ensure sufficient flexibility to reward staff who are undertaking additional responsibilities, the council's policy on awarding additional payments provides for Acting Up payments or a one-off Honorarium Payment to be made in specific circumstances. 

The Council may pay a market supplement, in accordance with the council’s market supplement policy, where there are proven shortages of individuals with particular skills and experience. 

The council is committed to making Brighton & Hove a carbon neutral city. As part of this, we promote healthy and sustainable travel. This means that when employees are required to travel, they should be aware of choosing the most cost-effective, efficient and sustainable ways of travelling, both to and from work and within the working day.  

Staff should first ensure that travel is necessary and that the intended outcome could not be achieved by other means, such as email or telephone or video-conferencing. Where travel is necessary, staff should make optimum use of diary planning to minimise the number of business travel journeys made and should explore walking, cycling, public transport options before using a car.  

Where authorised to do so, employees are entitled to be reimbursed for mileage they incur whilst discharging their official duties. This does not include mileage to or from home to their normal place of work. The rate of reimbursement will depend on the engine size of their car, while other rates are applicable where motorbikes and bicycles are used for this purpose.

Employees who have to use public transport to travel for their role are entitled to reclaim the costs of the transport under the council’s expenses policies. 

Read more about reimbursement and mileage rates.

The council introduced its current allowance scheme for those employed on NJC terms and conditions on the 1 October 2013.

These allowances reward employees who work outside the council’s standard working week, which is Monday to Friday between 6am to 8pm each day. 

Working outside of these standard times will attract an enhancement to the hourly rate. 

Details can be found in the Employee Rights & Responsibilities document. 

Annual leave entitlements vary according to the terms and conditions of employment.

View the council's annual leave entitlements.

Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme is subject to the rules of the scheme and contribution rates are set by legislation. Where individuals are already in receipt of a local government pension, they are subject to the rules on abatement of pension within the scheme. 

See the East Sussex Pension fund rates.

The council’s approach to dismissals on the grounds of redundancy or efficiency of the service and in the case of early retirement can be found in the following policies on our website: 

• Redundancy, Retirement and other Compensation Payments policy statement
• Retirement at Brighton & Hove

It is the council’s policy that employees who accept a financial package on voluntary termination of their employment with the council are not re-employed or engaged as a self-employed contractor or through an agency for a minimum period of two years; details of this policy can be found in the Re-Employment of Employees policy.

In exceptional circumstances, the council will agree to settle a claim or potential dispute upon the termination of employment by way of a compensation payment. In this situation, an officer panel comprised of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development (or their delegate), the Monitoring Officer (or their deputy) and the S151 Chief Finance Officer (or their deputy) will review a business case prepared by the relevant Chief Officer. While the officer panel will scrutinise the business case and may endorse it, make recommendations regarding it or advise against it, the final decision will remain with the relevant Chief Officer.

In the case of Chief Officers, other than those who report to the Executive Leadership Team, and in any case where the proposed total payment is £100,000 or more, the Chief Executive may approve the severance package where the package has been recommended by the Appointments & Remuneration Panel. The council’s External Auditor is also consulted about any potential offers to Chief Officers. Compensation packages in excess of £100,000 which relate to the Chief Executive will be referred to Policy & Resources Committee.

In cases where an employee is redeployed into a lower graded role due to their original role being made redundant, the annual protection payment will be the difference between the employee’s normal contractual pay in the former post and the normal contractual pay of the new post in year 1. In year 2 it will be 75% of this value. After this the employee will be paid at the top of the grade for the role they’ve been redeployed into. 

An employee will have the amount of their protection re-calculated should their pay details change at any point during the protection period so that their amount of pay does not exceed the pay they received in the role they were made redundant from. 

The council grades all NJC and JNC roles using a job evaluation scheme to ensure roles of equal value are paid equitably. The council’s allowance scheme sets out circumstances where individuals are entitled to payments beyond their basic grade.  

Individuals employed on a contract for services will be paid at a rate consistent with the pay of directly employed staff performing a comparable role and will consider where relevant, a premium to take into account any relevant market factors. It is the council’s policy to minimise the use of consultants wherever possible and the approval of the Chief Executive is required prior to any commitment to expenditure on consultants in excess of £10,000.

The council publishes details of staff earnings in accordance with legal requirements on transparency.  You can read further information in the statement of accounts in accordance with the Audit of Accounts legislation. 

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 requires all local authorities with more than 250 employees to publish gender pay gap data based on a ‘snapshot’ date of 31 March of the previous year to the year in which the data is published.   

The gender pay gap is defined as the average pay gap between male and female staff in hourly pay. The council is required to publish the mean and median differences between male and female employees and the proportions of each gender in each pay quartile. 

Further requirements stipulate the need to publish information related to bonuses received by each gender, however the council does not pay bonuses, and as such the council does not report under these headings. 

The council publishes ethnicity pay and disability gap reports on a voluntary basis.   

View the most recent Gender Pay and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports.