Gender pay gap report 2021

1.0 Introduction

From April 2017, all organisations that employee over 250 employees are required to report annually their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is defined as the differences in the average earnings of men and women over a standard period of time, regardless of their role seniority.

A positive pay gap indicates that men are paid on average a greater hourly rate; a negative pay gap indicates that women are on average a greater hourly rate.

2.0 Context

Blackpool council is a unitary authority, which provides around 150 services to 142,000 Blackpool residents.

All Blackpool council employees are remunerated according to set pay scales; posts are regularly reviewed and agreed by employee representatives through a formal job evaluation system. As at 31 March 2021 2618 employees were in scope for the gender pay gap of which 67.9 % were female.

Blackpool council is committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging equality and diversity in our workforce. This approach is endorsed in our council Plan which includes an assurance of equality and fairness in respect of gender.

Our equality objectives aim to get more people to tell us they experience fair treatment by council services; to make our workforce representative of our communities, with more people from diverse backgrounds involved in decision-making at every level; that equality and diversity is embedded in staff culture; and that we celebrate growing diversity and increase respect and understanding for all.

What are we required to report?

The overall gender pay gap is defined as the difference between the median (actual midpoint) or mean (average) basic annual earnings of men and women expressed as a percentage of the median or mean basic annual earnings of men.

3.0 Data

Blackpool’s gender pay gap 

Based on a snap shot date of 31 March 2021.

Proportion of males and females in each quartile pay band

4.0 Findings

You will see in Figure 1 below that the Mean Gender Pay Gap data of –0.94 % and the Median Gender Pay Gap -6.12 % are generally consistent over the last 4 reporting years.

Figure 1

These figures compare favorably with the national picture which reports that the gender pay gap for all employees was 15.5% in 2020, down from 17.4% in 2019., - Source : Office of National statistics 

Although these figures are favourable for the council, we are not complacent and will continue to monitor our performance, along with initiatives that we have in place which have contributed to these results such as: 

Family friendly

• Actively supporting parents returning to work from maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave by offering job share, career break or part time opportunities
• Provision of job/career opportunities
• Flexible working (Flexitime) in many locations including the opportunity for agile/hybrid working in many council roles
• Voluntary reduced hours, Job share and career break schemes
• Signposting childcare information
• Compassionate/special leave arrangements including the introduction of parental bereavement leave above the statutory minimum level

Learning and development 

• Annual and interim appraisals for all staff to allow the opportunity to discuss key work objectives and learning and development needs
• Mandatory equalities e-learning for all
• 360-degree feedback process for managers
• Development of coaching and mentoring programmes
• Annual staff conference and awards ceremony
• Menopause staff support group established, development of a managers training package and related managers guidance introduced

Leadership

• Head of equality and diversity who is a member of the senior leadership team
• Directorate equality self-assessment supported by the head of equality and diversity
• Development programmes for aspiring managers
• Leadership charter and survey

Recruitment and retention

• An established on line jobs portal, where all jobs are advertised
• The use of both structured and unstructured interviews in the recruitment processes
• Establishment and maintenance of a job evaluation system using nationally recognised NJC and Hay schemes
• Salary scales clearly showing incremental progression and related criteria
• Established Real Living Wage.
• Monitoring of recruitment data as part of workforce equality monitoring

5.0 Agreement

I confirm that Blackpool council is committed to the principle of gender pay equality and has prepared its 2021 gender pay gap results in line with mandatory requirements.

Signed:

Neil Jack Chief Executive