JOINT STAFFING WATCH SURVEY: MARCH 2001
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The March 2001 Joint Staffing Watch Survey was published jointly with the June 2001 Survey, which is available on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/jointstaffingwatch, or on request from the address at the back of this report. The June 2001 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 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 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 full-time equivalent 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, especially in the earliest surveys.
t.4 As in the previous quarters, the figures supplied by authorities for March 2001 have been scrutinised carefully, and oddities queried and, as far as possible, corrected. This process can lead to some revisions to earlier quarters' data. Such revisions are incorporated in the figures contained in this report. For example, in March 2001, Aberdeenshire introduced a new employee recording system, with the result that figures from this quarter are more accurate than those previously supplied. Aberdeenshire figures from previous quarters have been revised to provide consistency over time.
t.5 In addition, discontinuities can be caused by improved classification by service, or by transfer of functions. Discontinuities frequently arise in the category DLO/DSO, 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. Further, some authorities noted fluctuations (real, but likely to be, to an extent, temporary changes) in staff levels especially for supply teachers and DLO/DSO staff.
t.6 Variations in definition can lead to differences arising between the figures produced in the Joint Staffing Watch (JSW), and those published elsewhere. For example, the teacher figures recorded in the JSW include pre-school teachers, whereas those included in the School Census do not; figures for pre-school teachers are collected and published elsewhere. In addition, the School 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 on sick leave is replaced by a supply teacher, the School 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 March 2001, these staff were earning 49,761 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 March 2001, these staff were earning between 34,242 and 48,582 per year.
Band B: Staff paid between spinal points 31 and 49 on the local government pay scale. In March 2001, these staff were earning between 21,036 and 33,483 per year.
Band C: Staff paid between spinal points 3 and 30 on the local government pay scale. In March 2001, these staff were earning up to 20,397 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 2002
Enquiries on the Joint Staffing Watch Survey should be addressed to:
Esther Roughsedge
The Scottish Executive
1-G10, Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
Tel. (0131) 244 0439
Email: esther.roughsedge@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
List of Tables
Table 1: Estimated number and full-time equivalent number of staff employed by Scottish local authorities: March 2001
Table 2: Recent trends in local authority staffing: Full-time equivalent staff numbers by service (i) (ii) (iii)
Table 3: Changes in reported total full-time equivalent staff by local authority service (i) (ii) (iii)
Table 4: Changes in reported total full-time equivalent staff by salary band (i-v)
Table 5: Total full-time equivalent staff by service : March 2001 (i)
Table 6: Total full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 population by service : March 2001
Table 7: Full-time equivalent staff (i) by salary band (ii) (iii) in March 2001
Table 8: Full-time equivalent staff (i) per 1,000 population by salary band (ii) (iii): March 2001
Table 9: Number and percentage of non-manual (i) FTE staff by salary band (ii) (iii) : March 2001
Table 10(a): Corporate Services: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(b): Central Support Services: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(c): Planning and Economic Development: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(d): Other Education Staff: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(e): Social Work: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(f): Housing: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(g): Roads & Transport: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(h): Arts, Sport & Leisure: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(i): Libraries, Museums & Galleries: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(j): Environmental Services: March 2001 (i)
Table 10(k): DLO/DSO: March 2001 (i)
Chart 1: Total full-time equivalent staff per 1,000 population: March 2001
Download Tables in Excel spreadsheet format