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JOINT STAFFING WATCH SURVEY: JUNE 2003

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The June 2003 Joint Staffing Watch Survey was published jointly with the March and September 2003 surveys, which are available on the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/jswsm03-00.asp and http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/jswss03-00.asp, or on request from the address at the back of this report. The September report includes details of the changes in staffing levels over time.

TECHNICAL NOTES

Background to the Joint Staffing Watch

t.1 A key purpose of the Joint Staffing Watch (JSW) Survey is to provide meaningful information on overall local authority staffing levels by service and salary band, and to provide comparative information, particularly on relative levels of senior staff numbers, and of numbers of staff in central and corporate management roles. In particular, the surveys:

• Identify staff numbers within each of 17 separate service categories.
• Provide full-time equivalent staff (FTE) numbers in each of five salary bands, designed to separately identify senior managers, middle managers and equivalent professionals, clerical staff and staff employed under manual terms and conditions.
• Provide estimates of FTE staff numbers based on actual hours worked, rather than by applying an FTE conversion factor to part-time.
• Identify staff in authorities' DLO/DSO services as a separate category, rather than grouping DLO/DSO staff with the services they mainly support.

t.2 This press release shows full details of staff numbers by salary band for each council within each of the main local authority services. While these detailed tables provide useful comparative information, they must be used with care. Relative percentages based on small total numbers can be misleading. Differences between authorities in staffing levels by grade and service may be due to a number of factors, including different needs for the services provided, and different arrangements within the authority for providing for these needs (for example through different types of joint arrangement). Authorities, themselves, are best placed to address detailed queries on what may lie behind any of the differences shown.

Response to the Joint Staffing Watch

t.3 A number of authorities/joint boards experienced difficulties in supplying estimates for the JSW.

t.4 As in the previous quarters, local authorities are keen to ensure that the figures supplied for June 2003 report are as accurate as possible and are subject to careful scrutiny. This process can lead to some revisions to earlier quarters' data. Such revisions are incorporated in the figures contained in this report. For example, there was a delay in the collection of the June 2002 data by Aberdeenshire council. Staff who would normally have been counted were not because they were not on the payroll when the survey was completed, for example school auxiliaries who are not paid 52 weeks of the year. Consequently, for the purpose of this report we are using March 2002 data for June 2002 for Aberdeenshire.

t.5 In addition, variance can be caused by changes in the classification of staff by service, or by the transfer of function. This can be seen for DLO/DSO departments, for example, where staff are reclassified to/from other service groups, or where the service is no longer provided by staff who are on the payroll of the authority. The transfer of staff partly explains the large changes of staffing levels over the year to June 2003 for Environmental Services.

t.6 Variations in definition can lead to apparent differences when comparing the figures produced in the JSW, and those published elsewhere. The teacher figures recorded in the JSW include all pre-school teachers and teachers who are employed centrally by local authorities (such as peripatetic specialist teachers and teachers of English as a second language), whereas other surveys record these teachers separately. The Teacher Census covers the number of teachers working during a certain week, whereas the JSW covers those in paid employment. This difference affects the way in which supply teacher cover is recorded (e.g., if a permanent teacher is on sick leave, maternity leave or on a secondment and remains on the payroll of the authority and is replaced by a supply teacher, the Teacher Census would include just one teacher, whereas the JSW is concerned with the number of staff employed by local authorities, and would, therefore, include both).

The salary bands

t.7 The purpose of separately distinguishing staff numbers by salary band is to provide a clearer description of relative staffing structures. For most of the staff covered, the salary bands used are based on points on the local government employee pay scale. The use of salary bands based on points on this pay scale allows comparisons to be made over time, unaffected by any general increases in pay. The salary bands used in the surveys do not relate directly to salary pay scales under which staff are appointed by local authorities. Where overlap occurs between pay scales and bands used for this survey, staff, as a result of incremental progression, may move into a higher band as recorded by the survey. Care, therefore, requires to be exercised in interpreting movements in band numbers as recorded under this survey.

t.8 The salary bands used are defined as follows:-

Band A1: Chief Officers and staff paid at or above spinal column point 66 on the local government pay scale. In June 2003, these staff were earning 52,271 per year or above.

Band A2: Other chief officers and staff paid between spinal points 50 and 65 on the local government pay scale. In June 2003, these staff were earning between 36,132 and 51,045 per year.

Band B: Staff paid between spinal points 31 and 49 on the local government pay scale. In June 2003, these staff were earning between 22,397 and 35,342 per year.

Band C: Staff paid between spinal points 3 and 30 on the local government pay scale. In June 2003, these staff were earning up to 21,733 per year.

Other: This covers staff mainly employed under local authorities' manual terms and conditions of service.

The Scottish Executive / The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
August 2004

Tables

Table 1: Estimated number and full-time equivalent number of staff employed by Scottish local authorities: June 2003
Table 2: Recent trends in local authority staffing: Full-time equivalent staff numbers by service
Table 3: Changes in reported total full-time equivalent staff by local authority service
Table 4: Changes in reported total full-time equivalent staff by salary band
Table 5: Total full-time equivalent staff by service : June 2003
Table 6: Total full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 population by service : June 2003
Table 7: Full-time equivalent staff by salary band in June 2003
Table 8: Full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 population by salary band: June 2003
Table 9: Number and percentage of non-manual (i) FTE staff by salary band: June 2003
Table 10(a): Corporate Services: June 2003
Table 10(b): Central Support Services: June 2003
Table 10(c): Planning and Economic Development: June 2003
Table 10(d): Other Education Staff: June 2003
Table 10(e): Social Work: June 2003
Table 10(f): Housing: June 2003
Table 10(g): Roads & Transport: June 2003
Table 10(h): Arts, Sport & Leisure: June 2003
Table 10(i): Libraries, Museums & Galleries: June 2003
Table 10(j): Environmental Services: June 2003
Table 10(k): DLO/DSO: June 2003
Chart 1: Total full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 population: June 2003

Enquiries on the Joint Staffing Watch Survey should be addressed to:
Siân Morgan
The Scottish Executive
1-F, Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Tel. (0131) 244 0439
Email: DDEnvironment.Statistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

The latest version of the Joint Staffing Watch can be viewed on the Scottish Executive website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/jointstaffingwatch

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