The Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (ALACE) is a union that represents only senior staff in local government.
Much of our work is about supporting individuals who are facing various difficulties with their employers, from grievances and disciplinary processes through to problems with governance or member behaviour.
Our respected and experienced consultants provide direct help, often out of hours, and – if a parting of the ways becomes inevitable – seek to negotiate the best terms possible.
We also offer a bespoke, paid for service providing support on pensions issues and taxation.
The remainder of our work supports the generality of our members – whether in responding to Government legislation or policy proposals or in negotiating the terms and conditions of staff covered by the Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Executives of Local Authorities.
The JNC covers three-quarters of the UK, with separate negotiating arrangements in Scotland that directly involve ALACE.
This year, we are looking for better treatment for chief executives and chief officers than the local government employers offered in 2022.
The flat rate increase of £1,925 was worth only 1% or 2% for most of our members, when everyone on the main local government pay scale received 4% or more.
This was the second year in succession the deal for chief executives and chief officers was worse than the settlement for their colleagues.
ALACE never proposes a particular percentage increase in pay.
We have asked – as we do every year – that the pay increase for all chief executives should be the same as staff covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services.
We have been clear about what that means: the percentage increase in pay for chief executives should be the same as the percentage increase in pay for spinal column point 43, the top point of the JNC scale.
We have been very disappointed that in the last two years the employers have knowingly eroded the differentials between staff on the main pay scale and senior staff.
We accept the employers have to address the impact of the National Living Wage and have never objected to greater increases at the bottom of the JNC pay scale.
But we do object to the mismatch between the warm words about how the employers ‘value the contribution’ of chief executives and the practical impact of decisions on pay.
It is not only that chief executives and chief officers have been treated poorly in comparison with other council staff, pay for senior roles is falling far behind what is on offer elsewhere in the public sector.
Local government needs to attract and retain the best talent to lead councils through exceptionally challenging times: responding to the cost of living crisis, major reform in social services, waste collection and the planning regime, the levelling up agenda and a further probable period of austerity after the next General Election.
Senior officers provide leadership for place-shaping, multi-agency work and transformational reform.
Preventative services – good quality housing, leisure and open spaces, environmental health, social care – depend on well-led councils, without which the NHS would be under even more pressure.
Our colleagues in Unison and GMB have demonstrated how the pay of chief officers has fallen by 40% in real terms since 2008 compared to the Retail Price Index, and more than 30% compared to the Consumer Price Index.
Broadening the 45% tax band and the freezing of lifetime and annual allowances for pensions have a greater impact on our members than other staff, leading to further real terms falls in senior staff’s take home pay.
There is no financial reason why the employers should resort to treating senior officers less generously than other local government staff.
It is not a question of affordability.
We have demonstrated how each 1% increase in pay for chief executives would add less than 0.003% to the total pay bill – about three-thousandths of one per cent.
The 9% increase in average core spending power for English authorities in 2023-24 removes any suggestion that councils cannot afford a pay award for chief executives that matches the treatment of colleagues with whom they work on a daily basis.
We look forward to discussing our claim with the employers and pressing the case for equality of treatment.
Tracey Lee is chair of ALACE and writes here in a personal capacity
