Minutes:
The Chair invited Naomi Cooke, Head of Workforce, and Jeff Houston, Head of Pensions, to introduce the update.
Naomi reported that the Government had today announced that public sector pay increases had been agreed for the following professions – school teachers (3.1%), dentists and doctors (2.8%), police, prison officers and National Crime Agency staff (2.5%), armed forces (2%) and judiciary and senior civil servants (2%). She added that the rises for teachers would be ‘bottom loaded’ with newly qualified teachers receiving a 5.5% increase and all other teachers receiving 2.75%.
Jeff reported on two big pension announcements that had been made last week:
· The Treasury had launched a consultation seeking views on its proposed method of implementing changes to remedy the age discrimination identified in the McCloud case. Jeff said that members may have heard estimates of the potential costs to the Local Government Pension Scheme of as much as £2.5 billion but in reality, it was likely to be significantly lower than this.
· The Treasury had also published its response to the consultation on the proposed £95k public sector exit payments cap. Regulations were expected to be laid before Parliament today with debates taking place after the summer recess.
Members suggested that the £95k cap could have serious consequences for the capacity of local government to carry out reforms and reorganisations.
Cllr Taylor, as LGA Equalities Champion, proposed that, as a physical Equalities Conference wouldn’t be possible this year, a virtual conference be held focussing on the equalities impacts of covid-19 on council staff and the wider population. This was agreed.
Decision
Members of the Resources Board noted the update and agreed that a virtual LGA Equalities Conference be held later in the year.