Council employee head count and pay scales

Request

1) What is your organisation's total employee headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)?

 

2) What grade bands are used at your council/organisation? 

 

3) Please provide any letters/numbers/symbols used for the bands, and the annual salary range.

 

4) What is the approximate headcount and FTE of employees in these salary bands?

 

5) What is the median average FTE salary for an employee at your organisation?

 

6) Please see attached spreadsheet - How many employees (headcount and FTE) fall under these approximate career families in your organisation?    

 

7) Which indicators do you use (if any) to assess 'back‑office' efficiency and value for money?

 

Examples might include:

 

Cost per employee

 

Transaction volumes per FTE

 

External benchmarking data

 

Internal service satisfaction measures

 

8) How has your back-office workforce size changed over the last 3 years?

 

Please indicate:

 

8a. Increased / Decreased / Remained broadly stable

 

8b. Approximate percentage change (if possible)

 

8c. Key drivers (e.g. digitalisation, insourcing, statutory change)

 

9) What is the approximate population size of the area that your organisation covers?

 

10) Do you anticipate that your organisation's 'back-office' workforce will noticeably increase or decrease over the next 3 years? 

 

Please provide a brief rationale why.

 

11) How does this compare with any anticipated noticeable workforce increases or decreases, to your organisation's 'front-line/public-facing workforce' over the next 3 years?   Please explain.

 

For the purpose of this request, I am defining 'back-office workforce' as employees whose roles deliver administrative, corporate, and support functions that are not directly public‑facing but are essential for enabling frontline services and operations across the organisation.

Decision

1.  Headcount 6,258 FTE. 4,936.92

 

2. Please see below:

 

Pay Scale

FTE

Headcount

Care Leavers Apprenticeship Scheme

1.00

1

Chief Exectutive

1.00

1

Chief Fire Officer

1.00

1

Contral Station Manager B

1.00

1

Control Crew Manager Competent

3.00

3

Control Fire Fighter Competent

5.00

5

Control Fire Fighter Development

1.00

1

Control Fire Fighter Trainee

5.00

5

Control Watch Manager B

5.00

5

Coroner Central Lincolnshire

2.00

1

Coroners NE Lincs SCP11

0.92

1

Coroners NE Lincs SCP25

2.46

3

Customer Service Centre (CSC) TUPE

57.16

67

Day Crewing Fire Fighter Competent

0.00

1

Deputy Chief Executive & Exec Director

1.00

1

Deputy Director

1.00

1

EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT PROFESSIONALS

4.00

4

Educational Improvement Professional 11-14

7.00

7

Educational Improvement Professional 17-20

8.50

11

Educational Improvement Professional 23 - 26

2.40

4

Educational Improvement Professional 4-7

12.61

15

Educational Improvement Professional 5-8

10.88

12

Educational Improvement Professional 9-12

1.00

1

Executive Director

3.00

3

Fire Area Manager B

3.00

3

Fire Assistant Chief Fire Officer

2.00

2

Fire Crew Manager Competent

19.31

20

Fire Crew Manager Development

2.00

2

Fire Fighter Competent

70.00

71

Fire Fighter Development

7.00

7

Fire Group Manager B

8.00

8

Fire Station Manager B

16.00

16

Fire Station Manager Development

4.00

4

Fire Watch Manager B

16.71

17

Fire Watch Manager Development

18.00

18

Independent Panel Member

0.00

16

Kier 37 hrs

3.00

3

LCC G1

14.35

25

LCC G1.1

0.30

1

LCC G1.2

1.30

24

LCC G10

396.38

425

LCC G11

278.27

287

LCC G12

169.11

172

LCC G13

67.58

69

LCC G14

33.78

34

LCC G15

7.00

7

LCC G16

22.61

23

LCC G2

4.54

62

LCC G2.4

0.47

5

LCC G3

547.91

652

LCC G3.7

8.80

53

LCC G4

241.57

325

LCC G5

330.63

373

LCC G6

471.21

648

LCC G7

926.55

995

LCC G8

411.22

431

LCC G9

585.38

625

MSS1

18.08

45

MSS3

5.11

6

MSS4

1.46

6

MSS5

2.81

6

MSS6

6.62

16

NHS Band 2

1.00

1

Off Scale (Zero Rate)

5.61

14

Retained Crew Manager Competent

0.00

59

Retained Crew Manager Development

0.00

13

Retained Fire Fighter Competent

0.00

136

Retained Fire Fighter Development

0.00

172

Retained Watch Manager Competent

0.00

30

Retained Watch Manager Development

0.00

6

SENIOR LEADERSHIP A

12.00

13

SENIOR LEADERSHIP B

3.00

3

SENIOR LEADERSHIP C

35.92

36

Serco TUPE

1.86

2

Teachers Main Scale

8.20

38

Teachers Unqualified Scale

3.00

3

Teachers Upper Scale

40.35

75

Grand Total

4,969.92

6,258

 

3. Please see pay scale in question 2.

 

4. Please see pay scale in question 2.

 

5. £37,958 across all paygrades.   

 

6.

 

Career Family

Approximate employee headcount

Approximate FTE employees

Adult Learning

60

53.66

Analyst

69

67.77

Archive & Archivist

14

5.77

Business Support

764

674.58

Chief Executive

1

1

Commissioning

83

80.36

Community Engagement

7

5.5

Customer Support

103

84.89

Digital & Technology services

164

144.28

Communications and marketing

27

24.92

Education

497

350.77

Engineering

72

67.3

Environment

52

48.65

Waste services

48

45.97

Finance & Payroll

270

259.86

Fire and Rescue Services

726

271.04

Governance & Democratic services

20

13

Growth, development & Investment services

117

111.88

Human Resources & Health and Safety

71

61.68

Information Management services

12

12

Legal services

64

60.53

Libraries

0

0

Museums

138

56.41

Pension services

13

13

Planning

12

11.29

Procurement

32

30.7

Programme management (including transformation change)

20

19.28

Projects and programmes

   

Property and estate management

43

42.39

Public Health

52

49.78

Registrars and Coroners

144

56.28

Road crossing patrol

53

8.72

Social Care services (including Adults and Children’s)

2064

1828.25

Trading standards

36

33.38

 

7. No finance data held.

 

8.

 

a. Increased.

 

b. Headcount 21.5% / FTE 23.3%

 

c. Predominantly insourcing and restructure which account or approximately 69% of the headcount increase and 63% of the FTE increase.

 

The restructure included in this is: Corporate Directorate and Health and Safety Service Area moving into Resources, Commercial Services-People Services moving out.

 

The insourcing in from Serco are the Customer Service Centre (CSC), HR Admin and Payroll and Finance.

 

9. 789500.

 

10-11. We are currently awaiting the decision of the government on the future structure of Councils in Lincolnshire,  ( Local Government Review.)  This could - change the size of back-office functions, but it not possible to predict the impact on workforce numbers as the way services are delivered will be a decision for the future Council members to make. 

 

Reference number
16344925
Date request received
12 June 2026
Date of decision
10 July 2026