Rethink needed as city council’s corporate mum is denied maternity pay

schools, also keeps an occasional diary – online, but with fewer readers than her near namesake’s.

Cllr Jones hasn’t had a baby, but thought she’d check what her maternity entitlements would be if, as a councillor with a £25,000 cabinet allowance, she wished to start a family.

But, as in Lewis Carroll’s Walrus and the Carpenter poem, answer came there none. Or, rather, ‘None’. The answer was that there were no rights.

It’s evidently never occurred to anyone relevant – even after councillors had their Local Government Pension Scheme entitlement removed by the last government – that a cabinet member could possibly have need of such an extraordinary thing as a maternity policy. Let alone a paternity or adoption one.

As Councllor Jones’ explained, she’d “most likely have to step down from my position if I were to have a child.” There is a particular irony here. One of her own diary entries actually described how, “like many parents, I spent Saturday morning this week relaxing with my kids” – before hastily explaining that “they’re not my kids in the traditional sense; they’re in the Council’s care.

“I’m their corporate parent, and I’ve just over 1,900 of them.”

She then related what corporate parenting legally involves, the fun the children, their carers, siblings, council staff and she herself had had, the certificates presented by the Lord Mayor, and how it all made her feel “like a very proud corporate mum”.

To limit further embarrassment, the council’s chief executive, Mark Rogers, is reportedly “working on a policy”, but in truth it’s not really his responsibility.

All councils nowadays have Independent Remuneration Panels (IRPs), which recommend the allowances to which councillors may be entitled and the required Public Service Discount that should be applied, for final approval by full council.

Most of us say we want younger, more socially, occupationally and ethnically diverse councillors, but IRPs can actually do something.

Some therefore, particularly on big city councils, make explicit provision for leave and allowances for maternity, paternity, adoption and ill-health, and for all members, including those with Special Responsibility Allowances, to continue to receive their full allowances, just like the council’s employees.

Others that might be expected to, we learnt this week, don’t.