b'Local Government Lawyer 15variety of work, said one while adding thatfree or low-cost training that is relevant topensions are still more attractive than the pace of change in the law made over- specialist areas of practice is much moremost schemes found in the private sector, specialisation more difficult. The days ofdifficult. where defined benefit schemes are almost specialism are gonethe law has changedEach fee earner has a budget for trainingimpossible to find. Estimations of the so much and is constantly changing furtherthat does not even cover the cost of onecompatible value of public sector pensions [and] with the advent of Google everyonelegal course let alone travelmainly tovary, but research by the National Institute has access to the law. It is a matter of beingLondon, said one respondent We arefor Economic and Social Research in 2016 able to adapt and thrive in these invigoratingexpected to use free training which is good(Workplace Pensions and Remuneration in times. but mainly irrelevant to my areas of law. the Public and Private Sectors in the UK by In the open comments to this question,The lack of an available training budgetJonathan Cribb and Carl Emmerson) found quite a number of respondents also broughtmeans that we are totally reliant on freethat the immediate monetary value of a up the issue that local government careertraining provision from panel firms on EUpublic sector pension equated to 14% of structures reward those who move intoprocured frameworks, said another in asalary, compared with less than 3% in the management but not those who becomesimilar vein. Whilst those training coursesprivate sector.highly technically proficient in their area ofare good, they are, by their nature, notThis suggests that, for comparison law. I would prefer to be a specialist if I wasparticularly detailed and they are really apurposes, an additional 11% should be to remain in my role but to progress it isscatter gun of issues covered in a very shortadded to public sector salaries to reflect the essential that you have a sound knowledgespace of time meaning that there is littleenhanced pension provision offered by local of all aspects of the work, said one. benefit to attending some of them.authorities although the additional value of Finally, local government lawyers wereA number of respondents also noted thatthe certainty provided by defined benefit asked about the training they received.the lack of training budget is hamperingpublic sector pensions over the defined Worryingly, 30% of those surveyed saidlegal departments efforts to save costcontribution schemes almost universally they did not feel that they received enoughby retaining more work in-house. I haveoffered by the private sector is more difficult training to do their jobs, a rise of 2% onadequate training to do the run-of-the-answers to the same question in 2015 andmill aspects [of my job] but would like theFigure 6: Do you feel that you receive 7% when the same question was asked in aopportunity to refresh skills and learn newadequate training to do your job?similar survey by Local Government Lawyerones which are needed as restricted funding in 2013 (FIG 6). will mean we will not always be able to Many put this down to the withdrawalinstruct the expertise needed, said one.of funding for expensive bespoke courses,Nevertheless, there seems little especially since the ending of 16-hourexpectation that training budgets are likely30%minimum hours of the CPD regime andto improve in the immediate future. When the consequent reliance on free trainingasked how they expected training to be resources. Since the CPD requirementsdelivered in the future, most expected of the Law Society were relaxed, I feel mythe use of free (especially online) training manager has used it as an excuse to limitto grow (57%), while almost half (48%)70%external training, and we do very littleexpected further cuts to their paid-for internal training, said one in-house lawyer. training budgets.While many say that the quality of much of this training is good as far it goes, findingYes Nolawyers increased by 3%, leaving them atto calculate.an average for qualified lawyers of betweenThe use of market supplements and 39,290- 44,320.similarly-worded additional payments This is despite a rise in the number ofhas risen significantly, from 4% of all roles vacancies (the number of jobs advertised onadvertised on the Public Law Jobs website Public Law Jobs increased by more than 50% in 2017 to 12% in 2018. They are mostfrom 430 to 636from 2017 to 2018) andprevalent amongst councils in the South a tightening job market in both public sectorEast (excluding London), 25% of whose legal and in the profession generally. vacancies included an additional payment Pension provision for local authoritiesof some description. However, these do has also become less generous than it wasnot appear to be a panacea for councils although local authority defined benefitwith recruitment problemsthese are'