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The UK’s freelance contractors this week learnt that local councils continue to be a “good place to work” if an individual’s specialsim is in ICT. Local authorities including Fire and Police services offer “better pay increases, better retention levels and a wider range of benefits” than the private sector, said the Society of IT Management. Its salary survey 2006, which covers 30 per cent of local authorities, revealed that IT staff are enjoying average pay rises of 5 per cent – compared to 4.8 per cent in the UK private sector. It conceded though that the “gap is narrowing,” as the pay rise last year for private sector IT practitioners was 3. 5 per cent, according to Soticm’s pollster, Computer Electronics Ltd. The perceived buoyancy on local councils, in light of pay rises trumping those in the private sector, was echoed by a Society official, who said that the “overall package” of local authority work was proving “attractive” to IT workers. Bryan Corke, head of public sector IT at recruitment firm Hudson, explained to Contractor UK, “Local ICT salaries and contract rates have been hiked because they were exceptionally low. “Salaries will continue to rise but they are likely to hit a ceiling, particularly because roles in local government are graded and so it’s very difficult to push up salaries in line with the market.” Joined up government strategy has already created major change and large national projects. The move to create Strategic Police forces, by merging forces from the current 43 forces to a far smaller number, creates a huge amount of work and demands a massive IT investment, he said. “The higher pay rises across the public sector all started when e-gov and wider government IT projects took on critical status. I agree that rates are increasing for individual IT contractors on local councils, but some of the rates that were hiked initially are already starting to hit a ceiling. “There a number of [local authority] clients I’ve dealt with who have managed to increase their salaries and contract rates substantially and they’ve hired a great talent pool. But doing it again year-on year will be quite difficult.” Chiefly, he said, this is because organisations across the public sector are “now…tightly monitored” in how they spend their annual provisions. “Central government has large sums of money so when they need to deliver a project they can offer premium rates,” Mr Corke said. “Local government including Fire and Police forces are not on the same financial footing – a lot of cash is tied up in their existing projects, so I doubt in the long-term they will pay the premium rates contractors can earn from private sector clients in the City.” Reflecting on the survey, a Soticm spokeswoman yesterday said Councils plan to use more IT/management consultants “to boost the directly employed workforce” – a move destined to boost contractor rates. "Local councils are likely to pay whatever they need to get the job done,” Mr Corke said. “One of the things driving this mentality is the use of agency staff alongside professional service organisations. “So if a professional service organisation is on-site and charging a premium rate for their consultants, then it’s likely their presence will push up the pay rate for an agency-supplied contractor.” Elsewhere, the Soticm survey showed the use of “contract staff” by local authority IT projects has increased since 2005, albeit at a marginal rate of one per cent. Hudson pointed out that with IT projects which run off a third-party supplier, ”sometimes costs are rapped up all together, making it very difficult to tell the numbers of contractors and consultants involved.” Aside from the numbers of personnel, the Fire Services sector emerged as one of the most lucrative, offering its IT workers a 6. 7 per cent pay increase – the same rate awarded by local authorities in Wales. Providing scale to the figures, a survey spokeswoman told CUK that the annual salaries paid to the most senior ICT professional range from £24,000 to £98,000. Bryan Corke commented, “Two years ago job security to IT practitioners was very important – but now we’re in a buoyant market ICT workers will be more willing to move back into the private sector, so councils need to hike their rates to ensure their IT contractors don’t ‘hop and jump.’” May 17, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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