Gender pay gap report 2023/24

Organisations with 250 or more employees are mandated by the government to report annually on their gender pay gap.

The reports are based on the Government’s methodology for calculating difference in pay between female and male employees, considering full pay relevant employees of NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). The intention of pay gap reporting is to focus organisational attention on taking action to reduce inequalities, bringing to life our commitment to becoming an inclusive employer of choice and focusing effort on improving staff experiences within our workplace. Evidence indicates that disparity in pay has a lasting socioeconomic impact on staff.

This gender pay gap report is a snapshot of our workforce on 31 March 2023, using electronic staff record (ESR) data.

It is important to note that the gender pay gap differs from equal pay for equal work.

‘Equal pay’ means being paid equally for the same/similar work.

‘Pay gap’ is the difference in the average pay between two groups.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average hourly rates of pay for men and women right across the organisation.

As of 31 March 2023, NHS Kent and Medway ICB’s 727 employees were 76per cent women and 33 per cent men.

Our mean gender pay gap was 25.6 per cent (a reduction from 31.7 per cent in 2022).

Our median gender pay gap was 17.3 per cent (a reduction from 19 per cent in 2022).

NHS Kent and Medway ICB did not pay bonuses in the reporting period covered.

Both mean and median averages are reported; statistically the median is a more accurate measure of ‘average pay for the average employee’ as it is not skewed by very low hourly pay or very high hourly pay. However, the mean reflects all lowest and highest rates of pay, and therefore better considers the disproportionality of representation across different pay quartiles.

The gender pay gap trend for NHS Kent and Medway is positive, with improvements made from the previous year.

Table 1 shows our workforce divided into four equal-sized groups based on hourly pay rate. Group 1 includes the lowest paid 25 per cent of employees (the lower quartile) and group 4 covers the highest paid 25 per cent (the upper quartile)

Why do we have a gender pay gap? 

Legally, men and women must receive equal pay for:

• the same or broadly similar work;
• work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme; or
• work of equal value.

We are committed to equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees, regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, age, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability. We have a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their sex (or anything else listed above). We evaluate job roles and pay grades to ensure fairness and plan to train more of our people to be involved in this important work in partnership with our trade union colleagues.

We are confident that our gender pay gap is not because we pay men and women differently for the same or equivalent work. Instead, our gender pay gap is partly because men and women work in different roles and those roles have different pay rates and partly due to the representation of women being lower in our organisation at higher grades.

Across the UK economy, men are more likely than women to be in senior roles (especially very senior roles at the top of organisations). Men are more likely to be in technical, finance, and IT-related roles, which are paid more highly than other roles at similar levels of seniority. Women are also more likely than men to have had breaks from work that have affected their career progression, for example to bring up children.

This pattern from the UK economy is reflected in the make-up of our organisation. In addition, we reflect a pattern across the NHS that men are more likely to be in senior positions

Table 1 shows our workforce divided into four equal-sized groups based on hourly pay rate. Group 1 includes the lowest-paid 25per cent of employees (the lower quartile) and group 2 covers the highest-paid 25per cent (the upper quartile). If we had no gender pay gap, there would be an equal ratio of men to women in each band. However, instead, 89.39per cent of the employees in group 1 are women and 10.61per cent men. The percentage of male employees increases throughout the remaining bands, from 20.65per cent in group 2 to 38.46per cent in group 4.

How does our gender pay gap compare with that of others?

NHS Kent and Medway’s median gender pay gap at 17.3per cent is higher than comparable organisations in the NHS and comparators such as the public sector and the human health services sector even when considering geographical location (data for individual organisations comes from the gender pay gap service, data for sectors / regions is taken from November 2023 ASHE ONS figures, which is reported for median pay gap).

What are we doing to address our gender pay gap?

We are not happy with our gender pay gap and are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the gap. However, we also know this is a difficult task. For example, we are going through a time of reducing our workforce and consequently the opportunities for promotion and career development within NHS Kent and Medway ICB are limited.

We have already taken the following steps to support gender equality in our organisation:

• revising the flexible working policy: We updated our flexible working policy in August 2024
• supporting parents: We have developed new guidelines for managers on supporting employees before, during and after maternity and other parental leave.

This year we will take the following steps to promote gender diversity:

• creating an evidence base: To identify barriers to gender equality and to help us make priorities for action, we have introduced gender monitoring to understand:
  • the number of men and women applying for jobs and being recruited;
  • the number of men and women applying for and getting promotions;
  • the number of men and women leaving our organisation and their reasons for leaving;
  • the number of men and women in each role and pay band;
  • the number of men and women working flexibly and their level within our organisation;
  • the number of men and women who return to their original job after maternity or other parental leave; and
  • the number of men and women still working a year after they took maternity or other parental leave.

The initial findings will be published in July 2025.

• developing our succession planning and career development approach: This will commence from board and director level with an initial review and succession plan shared with our people committee later this year
• consider approaches to improve representation of women in non-traditional areas such as finance and IT and report proposals to the Executive Team by June 2025
• discuss the findings from the gender pay gap report with our women’s network to get qualitative feedback on barriers to progression in our organisation and work collaboratively to develop initiatives.

By themselves, none of these initiatives will remove the gender pay gap and it may be several years before some have any impact at all. In the meantime, every year we will tell you what we're doing to reduce the gender pay gap and the progress that we're making.

I, Rebecca Bradd, Chief People Officer, confirm that the information in this statement is accurate.

Signed: Rebecca Bradd

Date: 31 March 2024