New Town Council clerk pay grade

Question

We have been waiting for a CGR to be concluded for the formation of a Town Council since January 2018. The Borough council have finally agreed to the formation of a Statutory Shadow TC until elections in May 2022. Everything is now down to us to arrange like employing a clerk from April 2022. Is there any way to establish the pay grade for a Town Clerk? Would this be done on value of precept, number of electors etc or in any other way?

Assistance appreciated.

Answer 1

There are National Grade/Pay scales.

I would recommend you contact your local Calc (County Association of Local Councils) and the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC).  Both organisations should be able to offer advice and support. Good luck.

Answer 2

in brief, there are four Grades LC1, LC2, LC3 and LC4 which encompass a range of Loc Gov scale points. The scale points increase for levels of responsibility and skills.  LC1 has the lowest range of Salaries and LC4 the highest and these are nominally applied per number of Electors or precept level.  So a small parish Council serving a few hundred Electors in a Village would nonnally be an LC1 Clerk, whereas a Large Town Council serving 70,000 Electors would be more likely to have an LC4 Clerk.  Have a look at this for some initial steer  https://pencombegrouppc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2017.10-Salary-Review.pdf

Comments

Thank you Graeme_r your answer is most helpful. I am however having trouble finding any information on how the SCP and points work.

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You could compare to similar sized councils/levels of responsibility and see what they pay - but if you look around the variance in salaries for clerks is quite high, and often at town/large parish levels you start to have grounds teams and facilities to manage etc so they vary considerably.

I do know several larger parishes where I live have got in a consultancy to review the size/responsibilities and give a realistic grading structure suggestion (as obviously other roles scale from the clerk). They charge of course but if you are stuck then that might be a good approach, as if you undervalue the role you're of course limiting the people that might apply.