Negotiating starting pay - local council

[signsofspring123]

I have been offered an admin job with our local council. I am way over qualified and experienced but due to time out of work for caring responsibilities I am starting again. In my favour they also let slip I was by far the best candidate.

It is advertised as "starting salary £24 - £26452".
I currently earn £24, 500 so wondering how I approach pay negotiations.
I understand the local councils pay bands are pretty rigid but given this is a starting salary pay band there must be room for negotiating. Ideally I am looking to start on at least £25, 5000.

Any advice much appreciated

Another one who successfully negotiated a higher starting salary in local govt. And who has been on the opposite end of really struggling to fill a role and being willing to offer a start further up the grade. Good luck OP.

Haven’t RTWT but I recruit in local government and would (and do) appoint above the lowest salary point. Roles are assessed between two pay points. I appoint between the two pay points, anywhere from the bottom to the top depending on the applicant.

Of course it could mean that there isn’t anywhere to go payrise wise, apart from the annual NJC payrise.

The 24/25 pay award for local government is still to be negotiated.

www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/workforce%20-%20NJC%20Pay%20Claim%202024-25.pdf

Thank you @skilpadde
Do you happen to know roughly how close to the pay claim the award generally gets?

How long's a piece of string? The last couple of years it's been October/November, but it really does depend. The unions will hold out for the best deal they can get. The pay award gets backdated to 1st April and employees get their arrears in the next pay to be processed (so if agreed in November processed possibly for Christmas pay).

By all means negotiate on the starting salary (but do not be offended if they say no), but I really would recommend not asking for an increment date that's outwith their standard policy. These are part of local gov standard T&Cs that apply to everyone. I think most councils apply a 1st April increment, but some are 1st October. Some councils apply accelerated increments on gaining qualifications. Do have a look to see if the council you're applying to has published their employee T&Cs on their website.

I managed to negotiate a better pay. But it was a post they were struggling to recruit to, and I already had a job so could easily turn it down. I think they agreed because otherwise they would have had to re-recruit. But as you can see it is rare.

I work in Local Govt and I would say they absolutely would not consider appointing at the top of the scale.
Also they leave themselves open to equal pay claims from existing employees.

They’re just showing you the min and max you’ll earn in the role based on the salary scales this year. Each year you’ll get an increment till you get to the top of the scale.

I work for the local authority and there are no negotiations. You start at the lower end of your band and every year you go up an increment until you reach the top of your band. I asked this too when I started

I work for three different local authorities doing pay consultancy work. At two you might get put onto a higher spinal column point within the grade if you can demonstrate market factors require this. At the other everyone starts at the bottom scp in the grade.

I went straight in to my local council role at the top of the scale, which was still a huge drop from my earnings in a non public sector role beforehand. To beware, as I was at the top of my band and it was austerity at the time, my salary didn’t go up in 9 years!!! I stuck with it as it was family friendly etc although I worked much harder than in the private sector and after 9 years returned to the private sector earned twice as much with half the stress. Wish I hadn’t stayed so long in the public sector.

My private sector employer now is way more family friendly!

Interesting that some posters say negotiations never happen whilst others have first hand experience that it does!

But that would be because it will vary from council to council. At most you would need good reason to start further up the scale.

You need to think of local authorities as being like 300 different companies. Yes, staff are operating under broadly the same T&Cs but given each has a slightly different size, political make up, geography, financial status, etc etc, there will be differences in how they approach things like pay offers to new starters. Most will have a published pay policy.

In my case, when I asked to start further up the scale, I knew the job had been advertised at least twice before, had been unsuccessfully interviewed for, and all the junior staff managed underneath had left so there was an element of desperation on LA’s part, plus I was leaving a role with very similar pay and it needed to be worth my while for the extra stress involved. I was also bringing a lot of experience with me. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation from the recruiting manager when I asked for more money. But it was an LA that struggles to recruit to most roles anyway for various reasons so managers are given a degree of flexibility to secure candidates. You’ll need to understand the context of the one you’re dealing with to pitch your request right.

That simply isn’t true. Each role has been evaluated and a pay scale assigned. If someone has a wealth of experience and transferable skills it is up to the recruiter (as long as they have been given the latitude to do so) to appoint at the salary scale point they think fits.

LAs need good people, many trade off the benefits against the salary to join.

I have done a bit of digging; don't think they particularly struggle to recruit office staff and can't see if the post was previously advertised.
I need to respond today so still think it's worth a go at negotiating and initially request ceiling salary.

A couple of months ago I'd have said it's impossible to negotiate starting salary, as that has been my experience throughout my career in LG (both my own job roles as well as those I have been involved in recruiting to). However, a few weeks ago we took on 2 members of staff and started them both on the middle spinal point of the scale, given their previous experience. They are over qualified for the role, but have done it before so the manager could justify it with HR. Also the posts are externally funded so the money is there to be spent. You might have more luck if that is also the case with your job.

There are certain roles where they will be able to justify a higher starting point due to market factors. Social workers in particular are generally in this category. General office work - highly unlikely.

They will have advertised the whole band to attract internal applicants who will be permitted to port across on the same scp they are currently on. But with local authorities the ability to be flexible is far more limited than in the private sector.

Because they might get an internal candidate (sideways move/redeployment etc) already on that grade but on a higher point than the bottom and will transfer them across on their current point.

Increments are normally applied annually in April but if you start after April there are sometimes a progression applied in October.

@Berthatydfil where does this leave me if I am joining in April shortly after the pay increment?
Am assuming what has been advertised is the 23-24 scale,

OP you need to understand that local authorities are all different. Unless you say which local authority it is then nobody can answer your questions accurately.

At my largest client annual increments occur on 1st April. If you start after 1st April but before 1st October then you get an increment after six month as long as performance has been satisfactory and you have passed probation. If you start after 1st October you have to wait until 1st April. Most grades have about 6 spinal column points within the grade. The lowest grade only has a couple of points since it has been eroded by National Minimum wage.

At my second largest client (also a large city council) they have moved to a three point scale so there is a probationary point, a standard point and a higher point. Once you pass probation (not automatic) you move to the standard point. There is then the potential to move to the higher point but it is not automatic and is dependent on various factors including performance. All roles are still subject to job evaluation.

@signsofspring123 if you work for another LA and apply for a job, the new LA will put you on the same pay scale if it's within the band if the job you've applied for.

This is why the scales are advertised externally.

Sometimes but not always. You can quite feasibly have two jobs that are very similar but have been evaluated differently at different authorities and are at different grades. More and more you will find that pay scales at different authorities look completely different as they all try to move away from automatic pay progression.