Equality, diversity and inclusion annual report 2024

Marriage and civil partnership

The personnel system has a provision for employees to declare their marital status. In 2024 52.3% (2,993) of employees have recorded their marital status.  This has increased from 45.9% (5,526) in 2023.  We have not found evidence to suggest that there is a difference in the treatment of employees who are married or in a civil partnership compared to those who are not.

We do not record marital status as part of the recruitment processes.

Pregnancy and maternity

During the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: 

• 129 employees took maternity leave
• Of all employees who finished their maternity leave during this period 11 left the organisation either before or shortly after returning to work 
• Although there has been an increase in the number of employees taking paternity leave over the last 3 years, it is likely that the figure remains low due to the low rate for statutory paternity pay. Employees will be more likely to take annual leave or maternity support leave where their pay is not affected.
• We do not record whether an applicant is pregnant, due to have or adopt a child as part of the recruitment process.

Religion or belief

Religion of belief profile of the workforce

The percentage of employees whose religion or belief has been left blank on their personnel record has reduced year on year.

There has also been a decrease in the number of employees who have stated that they would prefer not to disclose their religion or belief.

We hold religion or belief data on 83.6% ( 4,788) of our employees. This is an increase from 81.7% (4,483) in 2023.

The data shows that a higher percentage of employees have a non-christian religion or belief than was reported through the 2021 census for residents of Lincolnshire.

Our workforce representation of minority religions including Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim is within 0.5% of the census percentages for the county.

Pay

• In the above table, where numbers are lower than 5, the percentage is given as either greater than or less than 49.6% for ‘Christian’, 3.5% for ‘Other religions’ and 28.6% for ‘No religion’ as these are percentages of all employees in the organisation and shows whether the representation in the grade is proportionate or not.
• The percentage of employees who have a religion other than Christian is 3.6% (194) in Grades equivalent to G12 and below.
• The percentage of employees who have a religion other than Christian is 2.2% (7) in grades equivalent to G13 and above. 
• There is therefore a lower representation of employees with a religion other than Christian in the senior grades (G13 equivalent and above), however the percentage of employees who have not shared their religion status is also higher 20.45% for this group.

Recruitment

• Applicants of Christian belief were 1.3 times more likely to be shortlisted than applicants with other religions or beliefs. 
• Shortlisted applicants of Christian belief were 1.4 times more likely to be successful than those of other religions or beliefs. 

Apprenticeships

• 42.7% (124) of employees on apprenticeships (266) have religious beliefs, this is below the organisational percentage (51.5%).
• A higher proportion of apprentices have no religion when compared with the percentage of all employees with no religion.   This is likely to be due to the fact that 21% of apprentices are 24 and under. 68% of employees aged 24 or under have no religion compared with 32% of employees across all age groups.

Formal HR processes

• There were 42 formal disciplinary cases in total and 50.0% (21) of cases involved employees with Christian beliefs, this is lower than the workforce percentage (51.5%).
• There were fewer than 5 disciplinary cases involving employees of other religions or beliefs, which was higher than the workforce percentage.
• There were 21 formal grievances cases in total and 47.6% (10) of cases were raised by employees with Christian beliefs this is lower than the workforce percentage (51.5%).
• There were no grievance cases raised by employees of other religions or beliefs.
• There were 13 formal capability cases in total and 38.5% (5) of these involved employees with Christian beliefs this is lower than the workforce percentage (51.5%).
• There were fewer than 5 formal capability cases involving employees of other religions or beliefs. This was higher than the workforce percentage.
• Given the small number of formal cases, a single case can cause a large shift in the percentage rates and can take the figure above the workforce percentage.

Leavers

Christian

Percentage of Christian employees at 31 March 2024: 51.5% (2,748)

Other religion or belief

Percentage of employees with other religion or belief at 31 March 2024: 3.3% (177)

• Employees with other religious beliefs were 1.3 times more likely to resign and 2.3 times more likely to be dismissed than employees with Christian beliefs. 

Sex

This data refers to sex assigned at birth or through a gender recognition certificate and is therefore male or female.

• The percentage of female employees has increased each year as the need for employees has increased in female dominated occupations and stands at 68.7% in 2024.
• The percentage of part-time employees is decreasing each year. During this period there has also been an increase in flexible working arrangements including compressed hours and a hybrid of home and office working which may have increased the suitability of working full time for people with responsibilities outside work.
• The percentage of part time employees who are female is 67.7% and the percentage of full-time employees who are female is 69.2% both of these are within 1% of the percentage of female employees in the workforce (68.7%). 

Gender identity and gender reassignment

We do not monitor the number of employees who are transitioning or who have transitioned. From 1 April 2023 we have had the facility to record the gender identity of job applicants and employees these options include ‘trans man’ and ‘trans woman’ and ‘non-binary’ in line with the 2021 census categories.

The use of this facility is low.  There are fewer than 5 instances of an employee selecting ‘trans-man’ or ‘trans-woman’ as their gender and fewer than 5 instances of an employee selecting male gender when they have described their sex as female and vice versa. 8 employees selected ‘non binary’ to describe their gender and 6 preferring not to disclose.

We have transitioning at work guidance as part of a commitment to ensure an environment where transgender employees feel safe in being open about their gender identity. The guidance aims to:

• aid managers in supporting potential and existing employees undergoing gender reassignment
• provide good practice and highlight areas that may need to be considered when an individual is going through the process of gender reassignment 
• ensure the fair treatment of potential and existing employees

Pay

There was a total of 5,465 employees in scope of the Gender Pay Gap calculations for 31 March 2024. 

3,756 (69%) of these were female and 1,709 (31%) were male.  

• The 2024 gender pay gap:
  • The mean hourly rate for males is £19.34 and females is £18.63.
  • The mean gender pay gap is 3.6%.
  • The median hourly rate for males is £17.44 and females is £17.10.
  • The median gender pay gap is 1.9 %.

The UK national median gender pay gap for all employees, calculated by the Office for National Statistics, is 14.3%. The Local Government association has reported the median pay gap in Local Authorities as 1.7%. The gender pay gap in local government 2023 to 2024 | Local Government Association.

Quartile pay bands

The workforce is split into four equal parts and that the proportions of male and female employees in each quartile are shown as:

Pay grades

• Female employees account for 69.1% (3,743) of the workforce on salaries equivalent to G12 and below (5,414). 
• Female employees account for 60.7% (190) of the workforce on salaries equivalent to grades G13 and above (313).
• The proportion of males to females switches from a female majority to a male majority at G14, G15 and G16 but senior leadership grades have a female majority of 63.5%.

Recruitment

Applicants are able to select their gender identity on the application form, therefore the following data includes gender identities other than male and female and does not specify sex assigned at birth.  The breakdown of the other gender identities is not included due to low numbers.

• Female applicants were 1.2 times more likely to be shortlisted than a male applicant.
• Once shortlisted, female applicants were 1.3 times more likely to be successful in the recruitment process.

Apprenticeships

• Female employees are 1.2 times more likely to be undertaking an apprenticeship.  

Formal HR processes

• Men accounted for 61.9% (26) of the workforce who were subject to a formal disciplinary process (42).
• Men were 3.6 times more likely than women to be subject to a formal disciplinary process.
• Men accounted for 42.9% (9) of the workforce who raised a grievance (21).
• Men were 1.6 times more likely than women to raise a grievance.
• Of the 13 cases, 92.3% of employees subject to a capability process were women.  Women were 5.5 times more likely to be subject to a formal capability process than men. 

Employee survey

The figures and percentages can be found in the employee survey section.

• Male respondents accounted for 23% (595) of the workforce who participated in the survey (2623).
• Male respondents were:
  • Most likely to say that they feel heard by their line manager, 3.6 percentage points higher compared to all respondents
  • more likely to say they have fair opportunity to progress in their career 3.7 percentage points higher compared to all respondents
  • least likely to say that they are proud to work for Lincolnshire County Council, 5.4 percentage points lower compared to all respondents
• When asked if they have experienced any harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues at work in the last year, 5.9% of female respondents answered yes compared to 6.2% of male respondents. Men were therefore more likely to experience poor behaviour from colleagues.
• When asked if they have experienced any harassment, bullying or abuse from people using our services, their relatives or the public in the last year, 12.0% of female respondents answered yes compared to 9.9% of all respondents. Women were therefore more likely to experience poor behaviour from the public.

Leavers

Female

Total female employees at 31 March 2024: 68.7% (3,933)

Male

Total of female employees at 31 March 2024: 31.3% (1,794)

Total leavers (male and female):

• 2021 to 2022 - 100% (655)
• 2022 to 2023 - 100% (677)
• 2023 to 2024 - 100% (567)

In 2023 to 2024 men were 1.4 times more likely to be dismissed.

Men and women were just as likely as each other to resign.

Sexual orientation

We hold sexual orientation data for 77.1% (4415) of our employees. This has been increasing slowly year on year from 67.7% (3,553) in 2019.  

The percentage of employees who have shared their sexuality as bisexual, gay, lesbian or another sexuality (3.4%) is above that reported in the 2021 census for Lincolnshire (2.77%). This is likely to increase further if employees feel able to share their sexuality in their personnel record.

Recruitment

• Heterosexual applicants were 1.05 times more likely to be shortlisted than LGB+ applicants.
• Once shortlisted LGB+ applicants were 1.03 times more likely to be successful than heterosexual applicants.
• These figures show that sexuality does not have a significant impact on the recruitment process.

Apprenticeships

• The number of employees on apprenticeships who have shared that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or other sexuality has increased year on year and is now 5.7% which is above the proportion of LGB+ people in the organisation 3.4%.
• These figures can be linked to age as the highest percentage of people doing apprenticeships are in the 25 to 29 age band (16.1%) and the age band with the highest percentage of employees who are LGB+ is also 25 to 29 (0.8%).

Formal HR processes

• There were fewer than 5 formal disciplinary cases (42) involving employees who shared their sexuality as LGB+.  The percentage is less than the percentage of LGB+ employees in the organisation (3.4%)
• There were fewer than 5 grievance cases (21) with employees who had declared their sexuality other than heterosexual.  The percentage is higher than the percentage of LGB+ employees in the organisation
• There were fewer than 5 capability cases (13) involving employees who shared their sexuality as LGBTQ. The percentage of cases was greater than the percentage representation in the workforce

Employee survey

The figures and percentages can be found in the employee survey section.

• Lesbian, gay, bisexual and respondents with other sexualities (not heterosexual) accounted for 4% (108) of the workforce who participated in the survey (2623).
• LGB+ respondents were:
  • most likely to say that they feel comfortable contributing ideas in the workplace, 3.8 percentage points higher compared to all respondents
  • more likely to say that their manager encourages them to succeed at work 5.4 percentage points higher compared to all respondents
  • least likely to say that decisions demonstrate that quality and improvement are top priorities, 10.6 percentage points lower compared to all respondents
• When asked if they have experienced any harassment, bullying or abuse from colleagues at work in the last year, 10.3% of LGB+ respondents answered yes compared to 6.9% of all respondents. LGB+ respondents were therefore more likely to experience poor behaviour from colleagues.
• When asked if they have experienced any harassment, bullying or abuse from people using our services, their relatives or the public in the last year, 13.0% of LGB+ respondents answered yes compared to 9.9% of all respondents. LGB+ were therefore more likely to experience poor behaviour from the public.

Leavers

LGB+

LGB+ employees at 31 March 2024: 3.4% (192)

LGB+ employees were 1.2 times more likely than heterosexual employees to leave the organisation in 2023-2024 and 1.3 times more likely to resign.

Pay and grading

For details of our pay policy read our annual pay policy statement.

We have a job evaluation scheme (Greater London Provincial Council - job evaluation scheme) in place to grade jobs from Grade 1 to Grade 16. This ensures we comply with the requirements of equal pay (equal pay for work of equal value) as jobs are objectively assessed and graded according to the same criteria. The job evaluation scheme is used to evaluate those posts which are covered by NJC (National Joint Council) for Local Government Services terms and conditions of employment. These posts all have a GLPC grade. This covers 83.2% (4,764) of our employees (5,727).

The highest percentages of employees on the GLPC grades (4,764) fall into Grade 3 (14.0% or 666) and Grade 7 (18.0% or 858).

We also have senior leadership pay for those managers above GLPC grade 16. There are 63 managers (1.1% of the workforce) who are on the three senior leadership grades A, B and C, and Chief officer pay.

The remaining 15.7% (898) of the workforce are on pay scales including, fire officers, teachers, Soulbury, or pay scales continued following transfer from another public sector organisation or partner organisation.

Gender pay gap 2024

In accordance with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, we are required to publish statutory gender pay gap information by 31 March each year. This information is published on both our website (gender pay gap data) and, as required by legislation, on the Government website for gender pay gap information (Gov.uk - gender pay gap data).

The gender pay gap data does not highlight any specific issues at Lincolnshire County Council, as at end of March 2024 the median gender pay gap was 1.9% and remained considerably below 14.3% which was the national median gender pay gap in 2023.

This report also includes disability and ethnicity pay gaps.