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Transparency

Information on different subjects is available on this page. To go directly to each section please click on the following links:

Information on council spending

The Communities Secretary has urged councils to publish details online of spending over £500 to increase openness and accountability. Information on payments we have made to suppliers over £500 from December 2010 is available to download below, as from August 2012 we have published the spending data over £250.

For each month the following information is shown:

  • date of invoice
  • transaction number (a unique reference number - to find out more about a payment please quote this number)
  • amount paid on the invoice
  • name of the supplier paid
  • the service where it was spent

Please note that the information is based on the payment date.

Publication of these lists forms part of our commitment to be open and transparent with its residents. All data provided is freely re-usable under the following terms: Data Terms and Conditions.

The percentage of their invoices paid within 30-days for 2015/16 was 99% and the amount of interest paid to suppliers due to late payment was nil.

If you have any other questions about a payment then please contact the Customer Service Centre and quote the amount and transaction number.

Spend per month documents

Find the data we have on spend per month.

Pay Policy Statement and senior staff salaries

The Government has set out its clear commitment to improved transparency about how it spends public money. This includes details of the size and shape of public bodies and about the remuneration provided to senior public servants. This is consistent with the Information Commissioners guidance that senior public servants should expect a degree of scrutiny of their remuneration arrangements. The Pay Policy Statement sets out details of the terms and conditions for employees at the council including the details about salaries of senior staff. The organisation chart illustrates how the council is structured.

Below you will find documents relating to senior staff salaries and our organisational chart.

More information may be found at Local Government Transparency Programme.

Gender pay gap

From 2017, any employer that has 250 or more employees will need to publish and report specific figures about their gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed relative to men’s earnings.

The Council must both:

  • publish the gender pay gap data and a written statement on the council website
  • report the data on the government gender pay gap reporting website

The figures must be calculated using a snapshot of the salary data on 31 March each year.

You can download our gender pay gap report (PDF 458kb).

You can also read our Workforce Strategy for 2019 to 2022.

Council Tax in Kent Districts

You can download the Council Tax bands by district for 2018 to 2019, excluding parish precepts (CSV 1kb).

Open data communities

Find out more about open data communities on the Department for Communities and Local Government (the DCLG) website.

The pages in this link illustrate a selection of the data held by the DCLG relative to the Swale Borough Council area, broken down into 5 general sub-headings of Housing, Finance, Deprivation, Wellbeing and Geography.

Voluntary and community sector grants

The separate registers below in CSV format focus on and list grants from Swale Borough Council to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

Workforce equality data

Find the data we have on workforce equality.

Public Sector Apprenticeships target

The public-sector apprenticeships target was introduced by government in April 2017 and sets a target for any public-sector employer in England with at least 250 employees to employ an average of 2.3% of their staff headcount as new apprentice starts between 1 April 2017 and March 2021.

We recently reported back to central government our progress towards meeting the target for the 2019/2020 year and were delighted to report that we were employing 3.28% of our headcount as apprentices.

We run a popular and successful apprenticeship programme.  The apprentices are provided with their required apprenticeship qualification training, as well as our own internal development programme and mentor support. Most of our apprentices’ secure employment at the end of their training, either staying with the council or moving to a new employer.

We aim to continue to run this programme, as well as provide apprenticeship qualification training to existing staff to support the upskilling of the workforce and provide development opportunities where we might not have otherwise been able to.

It is expected that by continuing with the apprenticeship programme, and providing training to existing staff, that we will continue to meet the target until 2021. The below figures reflect the reporting period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020: Number of employees who work in England

Number of employees who work in England

No. of employees on 31 March 2019

290

No. of employees on 31 March 2020

305

No. of new employees who started work between 01/04/19 to 31/03/2020

39

Number of apprentices who work in England

Number of apprentices who work in England

No. of apprentices on 31 March 2019

13

No. of apprentices on 31 March 2020

10

No. of new apprentices who started work between 01/04/18 to 31/03/2019 (this includes both new hires and existing employees who started an apprenticeship)

2

Reporting percentages

Reporting percentages

Percentage of apprenticeship starts (both new hires and existing employees who started an apprenticeship) as a proportion of employment starts between 01/04/19 to 31/03/20

5.13%

Percentage of total headcount that were apprentices on 31 March 2020

3.28%

Percentage of apprenticeship starts (both new hires and existing employees who started an apprenticeship) between 01/04/19 to 31/03/20 as a proportion of total headcount on 31 March 2019

0.69%

Property services data

Find the data we have on Property services data

Contracts Register

Find the data we have on our contracts.

View our commissioning and procurement page for information on tendering opportunities.

You can view our contracts register online.

Parking

Find the data we have on parking data.

Additional information can be found by downloading our Annual Parking Report 2013-14 (PDF 101kb)

Fraud

Find the data we have on fraud data.

External inspection and peer review

From time to time the Council is subject to external challenge by others within the Local Government Sector. This provides validation concerning the systems and processes we have in place, but more importantly serves as a mechanism to help us drive forward further improvement.

Trade Union Facility

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 requires local authorities to publish information on trade union facility time

The Council recognises UNISON, and there is a history of co-operative employee relations.  As a result of this cooperative approach, a range of fair employment policies are in place.

For period 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019

The total number of employees who are trade union representatives is:

Headcount

FTE

UNISON

5

5

Percentage of time spent by union officials on facility time is:

Percentage of time

Number of employees

0%

0

1-50%

5

51%-99%

0

100%

0

Note: only 2% of facility time is spent by union officials.

Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time:

Total cost of facility time

£7,062

Total pay bill

£11,167,379

Percentage of pay bill

0.06%

There has been no time spent on paid trade union activities.

Organisational chart

You can download the organisational chart (PDF 17kb).

Constitution

To read our constitution, visit the council section of our website.

Registers

Our registers, including public health funerals and licensed houses in multiple occupation.

Public health funerals

Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permits

Register of animal establishments

Caravan sites

Members' allowances

Register of licensed HMOs

Assets of community value

Vehicles with wheelchair access

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