The Employment Committee of Hertfordshire County Council met on 30 July 2025 to discuss the 2025 pay review, and the recruitment process for the Director of Adult Care Services. The committee delegated authority to the Chief Executive Officer to manage the recruitment and appointment of both a temporary interim and permanent Director of Adult Social Care (DAS). The minutes from the meeting held on 29 November 2024 were approved.

Recruitment of Director of Adult Care Services

The Employment Committee delegated authority to the Chief Executive Officer to manage the recruitment and appointment of both a temporary interim and permanent Director of Adult Social Care (DAS), following the resignation of the current director, Chris Badger, who is leaving on 31 August 2025 to become the new chief inspector of the adult and social care and integrated care by the Care Quality Commission.

The Director of Adult Social Services post has responsibility for local authority social services functions in respect of adults, and the legal framework for the role is provided by legislation including:

• The Care Act 2014
• The Mental Capacity Act 2005
• The Mental Health Act 2007
• The Human Rights Act 1998
• The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004

Key responsibilities of the role include strategic management of adult care services, strategic commissioning, working with the director of public health and other members of the health and wellbeing board, and ensuring appropriate safeguarding arrangements are in place.

The recruitment process will involve appointing an internal interim for six months, followed by a permanent appointment. The temporary interim role was advertised internally, and the selection process will include a technical interview and a final interview panel chaired by the Chief Executive. Remuneration for the interim role will be at L20, Pay Point 1, which is £153,101 per annum (pay award pending).

The permanent recruitment campaign will be supported by an external executive search partner. The role will be advertised via a dedicated microsite and other platforms. The selection process will include a review of applications, technical interviews, a final interview panel chaired by the Chief Executive Officer, a multi-agency stakeholder panel interview, and a staff panel interview.

The post of Executive Director for Adult Care Services will be paid within the pay point range of L20 (£153,101 to £169,886), with additional costs for advertisement and the executive search partner.

Pay Review 2025

The committee discussed the introduction and scoping of the 2025 pay review. The programme called Future Workforce introduced a revised Hertfordshire pay structure, job families and revised market enhanced payments (MEP's) in October 2022. The revised salary structures were designed to have regular three-yearly reviews. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the council's reward structures remain fit for purpose and aligned to the market, and that it is operating its structures in line with its Pay Policy and reward policies.

The review will apply to all roles in scope of the Future Workforce programme employed on Hertfordshire local designed salary structures using NJC spinal column points and Senior Managers in the Organisational Leadership job family under HCC locally agreed terms, covering approximately 7200 employees. There are currently 10 Market Enhanced Payments in place, alongside the Market Unsocial Hours Payment (MUSHA), covering approximately 1300 employees, with an annual spend of approximately £4.7 million.

The review will also look at the pay of the council's Coroner roles, as the Coroners' Society of England and Wales (CSEW) is withdrawing from the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) Coroners.

The Hertfordshire pay structure was designed and developed in conjunction with Korn Ferry and launched in 2022. It was agreed that the top of each level (pay point 3) would be aligned to the market median, using the Public Sector and Not for Profit for the South East and East of England, excluding London, as the market. The council also agreed to remain in national pay bargaining.

The review will include:

• Reviewing market enhanced pay points, roles, and values.
• Reviewing the value and eligibility of the Market Unsocial Hours Allowance (MUSHA) payment.
• Reviewing Organisational Leadership pay ranges (L15 L21).

Any decision made to vary any of the structures will need to be considered in light of the council's pay policy, equal pay principles, financial impact and affordability, impact on recruitment and retention, employee relations, timing regarding devolution proposals, employee engagement levels and motivation, and Local Government Reform (LGR).

The high-level timeline includes sourcing benchmarking data, analysing data against HCC's pay structure, developing options and proposals, making recommendations and sign-off from the Employment Committee, and implementing changes by April 2026. The current pay bill for the staff in scope of the review is approximately £307.6 million (excluding casuals and includes on costs), with MEP's and MUSHA costing approximately £4.7 million per annum.

Minutes

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 29 November 2024 were approved.