Pay Policy Statement 2024-25

'Chief Officer' is defined in the Localism Act 2011 as:  

• the head of the authority's paid service designated under section 4(1) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989; 
• the monitoring officer designated under section 5(1) that Act; 
• any statutory chief officer mentioned in section 2(6) of that Act; 
• any non-statutory chief officer mentioned in section 2(7) of that Act; and 
• any deputy chief officer mentioned in section 2(8) of that Act. 

Under the above provisions, 'statutory chief officer' includes: 

• the person having responsibility, for all statutory purposes (inc. section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972), for the administration of the authority's financial affairs; 
• the Director of Children's Services appointed under section 18 of the Children Act 2004; 
• the Director of Adult Social Services appointed under section 6(A1) of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 (as amended by the Children Act 2004); and 
• the Director of Public Health appointed under section 73A(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006. 

'non-statutory chief officer' includes: 

• a person for whom the head of the authority's paid service is directly responsible; 

• a person who in relation to most of their duties is required to report direct or is directly accountable to the head of paid service and any person who similarly is required to report direct or is directly accountable to the authority or its committees. 

The Council applies the terms and conditions of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Chief Officers to all officers included in paragraph 23, above, and has therefore determined that the following roles identified in the Council's Constitution to be 'chief officers' for the purposes of this policy: 

• the Chief Executive 
• Strategic Directors 
• the Director of Public Health and Wellbeing 
• Service Directors 
• Heads of Function 

The Chief Executive is paid on a fixed salary point of £183,351 p.a. pay award pending from 1 April 2024.  

The current ratio of lowest paid employee to highest paid employee is currently therefore slightly more than 1:8.

Strategic Directors are all paid on the same pay band (pay award pending from 1 April 2024), which is: 

All other chief officer posts are paid on one of three pay bands (pay award pending from 1 April 2024) which are:

Salaries in the pay bands at paragraphs 27 and 28 are subject to any general increase agreed at the JNC for Chief Officers, and in the case of the Chief Executive, the JNC for Chief Executives.    

General increases for other employees are mainly determined by the National Joint Council, although different national bargaining arrangements are in place for a small number of occupational groups such as craft trades, youth & community workers and educational psychologists. 

It is a recommendation of the DCLG1 that Full Council should be offered the opportunity to vote before a salary of £100,000 or more is offered in respect of a new appointment. In Gateshead, all new appointments to chief officer posts are made in accordance with the pay bands identified within this statement, which includes those in excess of £100,000. Any proposed variation to the application of this policy in this regard will be reported to Full Council. Reporting of any recruitment and retention allowances is outlined in Annexe 2. Of those Chief Officer posts whose salary exceeds £100,000 the following arrangements apply under the Council's Constitution: the appointment of the Chief Executive is approved by Full Council, while Strategic Directors are appointed by the Council's Special Appointments Committee.