Here's how much St Helens Council's workforce will earn this year

The salaries of the council’s workforce have been published as part of the local authority’s pay policy statement for 2020-21.

The purpose of the annual document, which was approved by cabinet on Wednesday, is to ensure transparency and accountability with regard to the council’s approach to setting pay.

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St Helens Council uses the nationally negotiated pay spine(s) as the basis for its local pay structure, which determines the salaries of the vast majority of its (non-teaching) workforce.

New appointments are normally employed at the minimum of the relevant pay scale for the grade, although this can be varied to secure an appointment.

A number of changes have been made to the pay policy statement for 2020-21, such as the annual cost of living pay increase and changes to the council’s senior management structure.

The pay scales in the latest pay policy statement  are for this forthcoming year.

St Helens Town Hall

Employees earning more than £100,000

The role that carries the highest salary within St Helens Council is, unsurprisingly, the chief executive, which pays £148,581 to £160,000.

The role of chief executive was previously filled by Mike Palin, who left the last September.

Kath O’Dwyer has been appointed as permanent chief executive and is expected to take over from interim chief executive Harry Catherall in March.

The executive director of people’s services and clinical accountable officer for St Helens CCG carries the second biggest salary within the authority, paying £140,454.

The joint role was created in 2018 to enable the further integration of the council and the CCG and is currently filled by Prof Sarah O’Brien.

Prof O’Brien also receives a car allowance of £4,500 per annum, which is funded by St Helens CCG.

The executive director of corporate services, currently filled by Cath Fogarty, pays £111,537 to £119,142.

The executive director of place services, which was filled by Paul Sanderson prior to his recent retirement and soon to filled by Lisa Harris, pays £111,537 to £119,142.

The new role of assistant chief executive, a post that was previously filled by consultant Keith Ireland, pays £98,247 to £100,833.

Rob Huntington, the group director of business change and transformation at Your Housing Group, has been appointed as assistant chief executive.

Kath O'Dwyer has been appointed as the new chief executive of St Helens Council

Employees earning between £50,000-£100,000

Directors of finance, customer and digital, legal and human resources and children’s and adult’s services will earn between £93,069 to £95,652.

Senior assistant directors and equivalent, including director of public health and assistant directors of children’s social care will earn £77,472 to £79,395.

The director of public health also receives a market supplement payment of £8,689 per annum. The assistant director for children’s social care receives a market supplement payment of £7,162 per annum.

Assistant directors and equivalent will earn £69,804 to £75,561.

Assistant directors of I.T, legal and democratic and HR and OD will earn £64,041 to £67,548.

The assistant director for customer and digital will earn £53,250 to £56,304.

The council’s service manager for development and building control, and its head of place and delivery will both receive £58,284 to £62,193.

Soulbury officers

The council employs a number of Soulbury-paid officers. These are specialist officers who provide strategic support to schools in areas such as school improvement and educational psychology.

Advisors and inspectors on Soulbury terms and conditions will earn £56,788 to £63,218 while senior and principle education will receive £50,159 to £60,428.

Lowest paid employees

The lowest paid employees within the council, who are employed on full time equivalent salaries, earn £17,711, as of April 1, 2019.

The relationship between the rate of pay for the lowest paid employees and chief officers is determined by the processes used for determining pay and grading structures.

Apprentices are employed by the council under a training contract on the nationally set apprenticeship allowance.

Labour's Kate Groucutt, cabinet member for corporate services, estates and communication

Cllr Kate Groucutt, cabinet member for corporate services, estates and communication, paid tribute to the council’s lowest paid earners.

“Although lots of attention is paid to the top salaries that we pay in this authority – which is right of course, every penny of public money matters – we know that the vast majority of council staff are not earning six-figure salaries,” Cllr Groucutt said.

She continued: “They’re the friendly faces in our libraries, our care services, our leisure centres and their jobs have become harder over the last decade as austerity’s reduced the numbers in all of these services.

“They’re the public face of the council to residents and they do it with a smile on their face and a professionalism that I know we in this room wish to applaud.”

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Cllr Groucutt welcomed the reduction in the gap between the lowest paid employees and the average chief officer.

The Labour councillor said the council would “love to pay more” at the bottom end of its pay scale to reduce this gap even further.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a government that is committed to paying local government fairly so we’re not likely to see an increase at that level,” she said.