Local authority interviews

[Jobalob]

I wonder if anyone could tell me what I might expect for a local authority interview and also a bit about the culture. The level is PO6 if that means anything.

I have worked in the voluntary sector for 20 years in fairly senior roles but I am nearly 50 so concerned I might be getting too old to move into another sector.

The role is almost identical to what I currently do but my current role is funded by a (different) LA and this LA run it in house so to speak. There’s only one interview.

LAs can vary a lot from council to council. In my experience though, interviews can be a lot more informal than say the civil service. We score highly where people give specific examples, especially using a STAR approach to model their answers.

In terms of culture, again it varies from council to council and even department to department but I’ve worked with a lot of really committed and innovative people - certainly not all just dinosaurs sitting there complaining until they can collect their pensions as many people would have you imagine. It can often feel stressful due to funding pressures/budget cuts/not enough staff and we often feel like the Cinderella service compared to NHS and Civil Service, but I’m glad my career is in local government and it’s been good for me.

Good luck with your interview 😊

As above, they’re all different. In my experience, interviews are competency based. So questions will be along the lines of, “can you describe a time where you did x,y,z and how you dealt with it?” So you‘ll need to prep examples of a range of situations where you demonstrated key skills or attributes. Good luck!

Thank you so much. Volutary sector is also ridiculously stretched so hopefully that won’t be too much of a shock

That’s what. I thought thank you. I’m going through scenarios and reading the relevant committee meeting minutes and agendas and the job spec to make sure I can answer against it all

I would say to also familiarise yourself with what services they offer, a county council is quite different to a district or Borough Council

It’s a London council, seems to be pretty similar to the current London council. I think they’re all borough council

Borough Councils is a little misleading as some places are called that and control all services and some only certain services.
You need to know if it is a single tier Council ie it does everything or two or even three tiered council where more than one council deliver parts of a service to the same residents.
it’s a bit hard to explain but if you wiki the Council name it will tell you what type of Council it is.
Demonstrating that type of knowledge and having good examples of what you have done to demonstrate your competency are what is usually looked for.
Good luck

Thank you so much. They control all services. Really useful to understand the distinction

If it's a senior role maybe check out their corporate plan and see how your experience and knowledge fits with the aims and values of the council

It’s PO6 level, not sure how that ranks in terms of seniority. It’s not very senior but it’s a circa £50k role so not junior. Have checked the corporate plan