What does your council do for you?
Do you know what your council does for you?
An information campaign to tell people about everything their council does for them is to be launched this week, in a bid to boost the reputation of town halls.
The ‘My Council’ campaign, being launched by the Local Government Association (LGA) at its Annual Conference in Bournemouth, will encourage councils, through a series of posters, to tell people about the vast range of services that their council tax pays for.
Sir Simon Milton, Chair of the LGA, said, “Most people just think that the council collects the bins and they haven’t the faintest clue of the vast range of services that town halls provide. From archaeology to zoology, from cradle to grave, councils provide over 800 services to improve people’s lives and help them get safe and sound through the day.”
To read the full article go to the LGA Media Centre.
To read more about the wide variety of services provided by your council, go to our “what is local government?” pages.
To read more about the huge range of jobs you could do in local government, go to our career descriptions.
Posted: June 30th, 2008 under careers, jobs, talent.
A day in the life of a Chief Executive
In a new series reported in Local Government First online, Chief Executive of Trafford Council, David McNulty, pays the first of a number of visits to some of the council’s essential, but often less visible services. Recently he spent the day at Dunham Massey crematorium and cemetery intending to find out about the hugely valuable work that the council’s 25 bereavement services workers carry out every day.
After a hard few hours work with the gravediggers and a new insight into what happens behind the scenes to ensure burials and cremations are carried out with respect and dignity, Mr McNulty admits he, “came away with an even greater admiration of the work done” and believes it shows the council’s “customer care at its best”.
To read the full story of a day in the life of a chief executive, go to Local Government First online.
Use the following links to read more about the role and duties of:
Posted: June 20th, 2008 under careers, jobs, talent.
The public sector - an employer of choice
GTI’s 2008 employer of choice survey for the public sector uses data gathered from over 4500 students and graduates who stated that the public sector was one of the areas, in which they were interested in working.
Some general trends showed that graduates wishing to work in the public sector were:
As a large recruiter in the public sector, local government, with over 2 million employees, is keen to attract people from a diverse range of backgrounds, with many different skills and experiences. If you’ve never thought about working for local government, think again! There are over 600 occupational groups to choose from, such as finance, IT, marketing, research, policy development, environmental health, social work, planning and much much more.
To find out more about the kind of careers on offer in local government, visit the career descriptions section.
To search for current job vacancies in local government, visit our jobs website.
To find out more about the national graduate development programme for local government, visit the ngdp website.
To register with the local government talent pool for graduates, visit the talent pool website.
To read the GTI employer of choice surveys in full, visit the GTI website.
Posted: June 17th, 2008 under careers, jobs, talent.
Unsung heros - environmental health officers
As reported in the Independent at the weekend, restaurants run by some of the country’s largest food chains are failing to meet basic hygiene standards.
Environmental health officers in local government play a vital role in highlighting these failures to comply with the law. They inspect all food outlets every two years and support restaurants to improve standards and in some cases, as a last resort, close them down.
The work of an environmental health officer in local government helps to prevent the spread of food borne illnesses such as e-coli and salmonella and contributes to the well being of the whole community.
Read more about becoming an environmental health officer here.
Read more about working in food safety here.
Check out the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s careers website.
Posted: June 16th, 2008 under careers, jobs, talent.
Career of the month - environmental health officer
Environmental health in local government is all about improving people’s quality of life and making sure they are able to live, work and play in safe, healthy environments. Local government environmental health officers/practitioners are involved in a wide range of activities covering food safety, public health, occupational health, housing and environmental protection.
Read more about working as an environmental health officer in local government.
Check out the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s careers website.
Posted: June 9th, 2008 under careers, jobs, talent.
National Food Safety Week 9-13 June
The annual national Food Safety Week is the point in the calendar for highlighting the importance of food safety and the basic principles of food hygiene.
Led by the Food Standards Agency, along with a range of other partners, the theme of this year’s campaign is “Germ-watch”. The idea is to raise awareness of good food safety practice, including the use of the “4Cs”:
The Food Standards Agency is encouraging organisations to run events this week to raise awareness of food safety issues. You can download resources on the Foodlink website.
Local councils do lots of work to raise awareness of food safety, prevent poor food safety standards make sure that businesses follow food hygiene rules. Read more about the kind of work you could do working as a technical officer in food safety.