Working in local government

[NashEnquirer]

What are the benefits? Other than a good DB pension scheme (LGPS).

I have fair amount of experience in governance-related roles within a different sector and have seen a role advertised within "Democratic Services" for a shared local alliance of a borough and a district council. So far I've dealt with elected/appointed govs and trustees (as well as corporate directors) - does it feel quite.dofferent working for and with elected council representatives? Any experience of working in governance in local councils, and particularly of moving into this from a different sector, much appreciated.

(Also posted in Chat before I found the Work topic!)

Benefits are flexi time, probably above minimum annual leave, bank holidays off, flexibility, hybrid work maybe?

Elected councillors have the pressure from the public don’t they? They don’t always understand officers roles and remits and can over promise. But most of them are professional people doing it for good reasons.

im guessing democratic services officer will have to attend lots of public meetings (evening meetings), putting together agendas, tight deadlines etc

Councils budgets have been super squeezed, staff morale/ motivation pretty low and in my experience , strange pay rise structures (both councils I’ve worked in you have to write up how you meet/ exceed targets then you get a rating which decides how much of an unknown pot of money you’ll get- it’s bizarre and a lot of effort for not a lot) .

also wonder what the training / support package would be? I worked in local government, then went to a different public sector organisation, now returned to local govt and tbh I’ve found it horrendous- I think it’s the learning via remote working .

good luck whatever you choose.

I detest working directly with politicians.

This is really interesting, @Ponderence, thank you. I think you're right about pressure on elected councillors and potential confusion over paid officers' remits - I see this quite a bit in other industries with unpaid trustees/NEDs etc.

Also a good point re squeezed budgets and low morale - not point jumping out of her frying pan into the fire on that front really. Also I don't know how impartial/unbiased I can really be in the face of 12yrs of national Tory incompetence, rightly or wrongly.

@SatsumaNightmare also a very good point, my tolerance levels are pretty low already tbh.

My experience is that elected members generally are quite pleasant to democratic services staff, probably because they are perceived as working for the members and making their lives easier. Not so much to staff in other departments. Our last crop of Conservative members were tough but fair, our new non-Tory members are downright awful and are putting me off voting for their national counterparts at the next election.

Otherwise the benefits are usually good holidays (rising after X years service), good flexitime arrangements, genuinely feeling like you’re “serving” the local population. Might have to watch out for evening working in dem services - a lot of our committees start quite late in the afternoon and are then followed by other meetings which can mean a long day. And trying to get senior officers/members to agree an agenda for a meeting can be eternally frustrating.