Community development officers work to improve the involvement of all kinds of community groups in local life: developing parks and urban spaces in response to people’s requirements; improving healthcare for disadvantaged groups; getting better access to services and jobs for ethnic minority communities. Community development officers work across different council departments with a wide range of people.

Work Environment

Community development officers work from an office base, but spend a great deal of time visiting people in the community in their homes or other community locations, such as village halls. They may wear casual clothes to fit in with less formal groupings.

Working hours are 37 per week, with a substantial amount of evening hours often required, to meet community groups at a time to suit them. They may take time off during the day to compensate for after-hours work.

Daily Activities

Community development officers work closely with a range of community groups to find out their views and needs, and to try to best fit services to their requirements. Here are some examples of the different areas of work:

• Health related work – this could include targeting disease prevention programmes for those particularly at risk, because of their age or background.
• Education and employment – this may involve arranging training, advice and support for different groups of people.
• Leisure – this may involve ensuring that facilities best suited to particular groups are made available to them.

Community development officers are often responsible for budgets, making sure that money is available for schemes and programmes to support the communities with which they work. They also write reports on their work. Community development officers work closely with professionals who run other schemes in the community and may be involved in creating publicity to promote the schemes that they run. It is often their responsibility to provide information to and between a wide range of organisations and groups.

Skills & Interests

Community development officers need:

• good communication skills,
• an understanding of and sensitivity to diversity issues,
• budget management skills,
• good research skills, with an ability to analyse results,
• the ability to work sensitively with different groups in local communities,
• good project management skills.

Entry Requirements

There may be a number of routes into the work. Some jobs may specify a minimum number of GSCEs/S Grades including English and maths, whilst others may ask for A-levels/Highers and/or a degree, possibly in a related area such as health studies or youth and community work.

You may need previous experience of community or voluntary work.

There may also be opportunities to train on the job and gain NVQ/SVQs in community work.

Estimated salary range

£15,000 - £25,000

Please note that salary information is a guide only and there may be local agreements in place. For further information about salaries for particular positions, please contact your local council directly.

Future prospects & opportunities

There may be opportunities to specialise in particular areas such as equalities and diversity, youth work or adult learning. There may also be opportunities within more general regeneration work.

Community development officers with some years experience can move into management.

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