Guernsey increases spending on covid 19 fight

The additional expenses associated with Covid contributed to a rise of £13 million in the States' total pay obligations

According to the States Accounts, although the STATES' pay expenses increased by more than £13 million in the last year, they actually decreased in real terms when extraordinary staff costs connected particularly to Covid were taken out of the equation.

The cost of salaries and benefits is the single greatest category of expenditures in the public sector, accounting for 49.3 percent of the total revenue spending in the previous year. If Covid is left out of the computation, then it becomes clear that it is accountable for more than half.

The overall amount spent on pay in 2021 was £264.8 million, which is an increase from the previous year's total spending of £251 million. This figure accounts for permanent, temporary, and agency personnel, as well as the $1.75 million that was spent on state members.

This represents a nominal increase of 5.5 percent and a real-term increase of 0.9 percent, which is equivalent to an increase of £2.2 million. However, this figure includes the expenditure of £5 million on staff involved in Covid measures, which includes the vaccine center, on-island testing, and testing at the border. In 2020, this figure represented a decrease of £1 million.

When this one-time expenditure was taken out of the equation, the payroll cost went down, measured in actual dollars.

Only workers of the public service, who were covered by the Agenda for Change agreement, and health staff got pay raises in 2021; public service personnel had a 2.4 percent raise, while health staff had a 5 percent raise.

When all was said and done, pay raises were responsible for £6.6 million, and this figure included £2.9 million for awards for 2020 that had not been finalized when the 2021 budget was being created.

During the course of the year, 142 new full-time equivalent employees were added to the workforce of the State, bringing the total number of employees to 4,862.

This was almost entirely the result of improvements made to health and social care services, which included the addition of 148 full-time equivalent positions (FTEs), of which 100 were assigned to work specifically on Covid; these positions included 41 in the vaccine centre, an increase of 25 in on-island testing and an increase of 34 in testing at the border, and an additional 35 headcount positions in adult disability services.

The report also includes a listing of staff members whose employment expenses are larger than £90,000 per year. The number of staff members in this category, which increased from 240 at the beginning of 2021 to 256 by the end of 2021, is detailed in the report.

The nursing staff had the greatest rise in terms of numbers, going from 41 to 52 throughout the course of this time period.

The States have said that this is a result of the 5 percent salary award that was given to the Agenda for Change employees, which caused certain individuals who were previously on a specific pay grade to be placed into this bracket. As a result of the extra compensation that some nurses received while working on the COVID project, there would also be some temporary positions available.

There are now fifteen workers of the State who get salaries more than £190,000; this includes two members of the State's established staff, eight medical consultants, and five Crown Officers and judges. In 2020, there were only three people who received such salaries.

During the course of the year, expenses that were not related to salaries came to a total of £272.4 million, representing a decline of £22 million from 2020's total.

Compared to 2020, the amount spent on Covid business support measures was reduced by £28.9 million. However, £6 million was spent on specific Covid measures, including immunizations and border tests, whereas only £1 million was spent on these measures in 2020.