One of the major issues for local government is recruitment, both in certain service areas but also in general, so it's been a pleasure over the last year to be involved with rolling out the Local Government Association (LGA) and Solace 'Make A Difference' campaign. The idea behind this was to deliver a national campaign, highlighting the opportunities in local councils and enabling those councils to also use to suit their own issues.
We initially launched a pilot scheme earlier this year in the North East, and the national roll out started on Monday 4th November. Such has been the success of the North East pilot, that it was shortlisted for the LGC Workforce Awards 'Best Innovation in Recruitment' award and so on Monday I joined the North East Regional Employers Organisation, alongside a few colleagues from the LGA and Solace to attend the awards. It was a great evening, shining a spotlight on everything that local authorities are doing to tackle challenges around recruitment, and even better - we won!
Since then, I have seen our award winning national campaign in several locations on my travels, as well as online. It's eye catching and a great way of raising awareness of the many and varied careers that local government can offer.