Gender Pay Gap Report - April 2024

South Tyneside Homes manages estates and Council housing stock on behalf of South Tyneside Council. To do this effectively, we have agreed values and objectives with our partners and customers. Our vision is to provide excellent services and quality homes where customers feel safe and supported.

We have committed to making sure that everyone is given a fair chance to access our services and employment opportunities. Our aim is to be an employer of choice, to treat all people fairly and ensure our employees understand and practice our commitment to equality and diversity.

Our People Strategy 2022-25, states the Vision for our people strategy is "to have a motivated, well-trained and diverse workforce that can meet the needs of the business, both now and in the future".

To support our overall strategic objective of becoming an “Employer of Choice” the strategy is underpinned by having four objectives, as outlined below.

• To develop a pro-active approach to engage and ensure the wellbeing of our staff.
• To develop a modern and efficient approach to recruit and retain high quality, diverse staff.
• Ensure staff skilled and knowledgeable to meet current and future challenges.
• Develop our workforce plan to meet the future needs of the business through training and career development opportunities.

We want our staff to be engaged and empowered at work, and to promote a proactive and supportive culture that fosters an inclusive working environment and allows a creative and collaborative workforce that affirms South Tyneside Homes is a great place to work. The Strategy will sit alongside the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) framework to ensure it is a fundamental part of “how we do things” at South Tyneside Homes.

You can read further information within the EDI Strategy and EDI Policy.

The Government requires all employers with over 250 employees to report their gender pay gap on an annual basis. The gender pay gap data highlights the difference between the average pay of men and women; it is not a measure of equal pay, which relates to what men and women are paid for the same or similar roles or work of equal value. The Company is an equal pay employer. Our pay structure is subject to transparent and robust job evaluation processes using the recommended Gauge System.

South Tyneside Homes collected data on 5 April 2024 at which time our workforce (full pay relevant employees) consisted of 376 men and 163 women (70% / 30% respectively). The figures stated were captured on 5 April 2023, a nationally negotiated pay award is still in consultation and, once settled, will be backdated to 1 April 2024. Full time relevant employees are defined as employees who have been paid their full usual pay during the pay period (April 2023). Any employees who have received reduced pay or no pay during this period, for example those on half sick pay or reduced maternity pay must be excluded from the calculations.

The figures in the table below show that the Company has a mean gender pay gap of 12.7% which is the difference between the mean (average) hourly rate of pay of male and female full pay relevant employees.

Although this is an increase from 8.1% in April 2023, the Company understands the reason for this rise is a result of two female senior managers, who were the highest two paid in the Upper quartile have since left the Company since the 2023 report. There has also been an addition of one male head of service and another two male assistant head of services following promotions into the Company.

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of male and female full pay relevant employees and is 8.6% which has increased from 7.4% in April 2023. The annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE) gender pay gap tables released by the Office of National Statistics Great Britain in 2023 reported that the median gender pay gap for Public Sector employees was 13.8%, therefore the Company remains well below the national average.

The Company does not pay bonus payments and therefore does not have a gender pay gap to report regarding bonuses.

Female employees are slightly over-represented in the Lower and Lower Middle quartile pie charts and significantly underrepresented in the upper middle and upper quartile pie charts. This shows that male employees make up the higher percentage in the upper pay bands, with 81% of the highest paid staff being male. Female staff in upper middle and upper roles decreased from 54 staff to 49 staff. Male staff in upper middle and upper roles increased from 216 staff to 241 staff.

The median hourly rate for men is £17.37, increasing from £16.38 in 2023 and women is £15.88, increasing from £15.16. The average hourly rate per quartile is shown in the table below.

The Company has had an increase of part time employees (less than 30 hours per week). Out of 539 employees, 504 employees (93%) are full time, and 76 employees (7%) are part time. Of the 76 part time staff, only 4 (1.1%) of these are male compared to 72 part time women at 36% of female staff.

Compared to 2023 figures, men working part time has decreased from 6 and women working part time has significantly increased from 36 in 2023. Last year, one focus was to promote more the flexible working opportunities across the organisation. This could also be down to the right to apply to flexible working from day 1. This does show however that there may be more to be done particularly with male employees in senior roles accessing flexible working, including the advertising of roles to part time applicants where possible. The numbers of full time and part time staff in each quartile are shown in the table below:

In 2023 / 2024 the following progress was made around equality, diversity inclusion and the Gender Pay Gap:

• Amended our Flexible Working Policy, to give staff the right to access this from day 1 of employment and to make 2 applications per year. We have encouraged managers to approve requests, where possible.
• We changed the wording of the Flexi Policy to make it clear that South Tyneside Homes management team recognises the benefits of flexible working to support staff to achieve a work life balance. We have also amended our Flexi Policy so that staff can make multiple logins and logouts on a single day.
• Reviewed and updated our Menopause Policy.
• In partnership with the Council, we have launched a new Multicultural Network and have increased promotion of existing staff groups including Women’s Group Network, Disability and Neurodiverse Network and a Carer’s Network.
• We have updated our Carers Policy which gives staff the right to one week of caring leave a year.
• We achieved Level One of the Carer Confident Scheme.
• Targeted work experience to encourage women into trade roles as a career option. An example of how we do this is through social media. See our ‘Introduce a girl to engineering day’ video.
• Promote policies that promote staff with protected characteristics which include Flexi Time, Stuck not Sick, Compassionate Leave, Flexible Working, Career Break, Job Share, Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave, Parental Leave, Home Working, Carers, Health and Safety, Domestic Abuse, Childcare Salary Sacrifice and Volunteer Policy.
• Carried out annual staff satisfaction survey broken down by protected characteristics.
• We have offered a range of opportunities to support young people into training and employment. We offer a guaranteed interview for any children who are looked after by South Tyneside Council who apply for either a trainee or apprentice opportunity.
• We have added an apprenticeship guide for Disabled people created by Disability Rights UK to our intranet and website.
• As of March 2024, we have 37 apprentices and 5 trainee employees. We are currently in the process of recruiting a further 10. We have recruited 1 female apprentice and 1 female trainee this financial year.
• Increase of promotion of campaigns to staff including Alcohol Awareness Week, Men’s Health Week, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Emotional Health Week, World Autism Acceptance Week, Neurodiversity Celebration Week and Stress Awareness Month.
• For International Women’s Day 2024 staff were encouraged to take a 30- minute paid ‘coffee’ break with their colleagues and discuss changes they’d like to see at STH with regards to female talent progressing to leadership at STH. We also asked staff to discuss ways that STH can increase the number of female operatives we have working in our construction roles in our Property Services division.
• On Tuesdays staff receive a ‘Training Tuesday’ email where they can book from a host of EDI training sessions, such as nutrition for a healthy and happy menopause, Discrimination – how can we challenge prejudice, Disability Awareness and Etiquette, Creating an LGBT+ Inclusive Environment, Physiology of Stress, safeguarding courses, How to be a Good Trans Ally, Making Every Contact Count: Mental Health and more.

We have also begun considering thinking about actions beyond this year. You can read our full EDI Strategy here.

Research has been carried out on comparator employer data for 2023 (2024 data has not been published yet):

As of November 2024, the Company will transition into South Tyneside Council. Future reporting on gender pay gap will be included in their comprehensive analysis. This will ensure that there will continue to be a unified approach to addressing gender pay equity across the entire group.