b'26 Local Government Lawyermore interested now in how they can make a contribution than perhaps people in the past.local government should be able to smash it out of the park in terms of what we can offer people in terms of making a difference in peoples and communities lives. Those are the sort of areas where perhaps we need to sort of focus on rather than trying to compete with the private sector.Another simpler solution to encouraging more applicants for local authority vacancies was to make the application process easier. Almost all local authorities require applicants to fill out an extensive application form as the first stage of the application process outlining how their experience child protection, procurement, projects orexperience to enable lawyersespeciallymeets a long list of skills and experience. property, the money that lawyers can makethose from private practiceto a get realThis is a task which can take several hours as locums can far exceed the value of thefeel of what working in a local authority isand acts as a barrier for many would-be pay and additional benefits available tolike before deciding whether it is for them. applicants, especially those coming from permanent employees.[For most lawyers] it used to be a choice of either going to the private sectorLocal authorities do hold some trump cards when it or staying local in government, but nowcomes to recruitment, most notably around the quality a number of our agency staff do agency work because thats their preferred choice,and variety of work they provide (especially to more said Mark Hynes, Director of Legal and Governance, London Borough of Walthamjunior lawyers) and the work-life balance they can offerForest. There are lots of advantages and often theyre able to earn more than they would do in a permanent role in a localI worry though that if you do try andoutside the sector. authority. So, I think thats another dynamiccompete on pay sooner or later were goingIn the private sector (and for locum that may be adding to the difficulties ofto lose on pay, John Tradewell, Director ofsolicitors), it is much more common obtaining and recruiting staff. Corporate Services, Staffordshire Countypractice for the initial application to be Nevertheless, as the careers surveyCouncil. I dont think we can win thatmade by sending a CV and covering letter. shows, local authorities do hold some trumpone long term. I think that the kind of keyOne delegate whose HR department did cards when it comes to recruitment, mostmessage for us is to focus on everything(eventually) relent to allow candidates to notably around the quality and variety ofother than pay and make ourselves the bestuse CVs found that it has had a positive work they provide (especially to more junioron all those things. I think the [importanceeffect, but described it as a real battle to lawyers) and the work-life balance they canof] work-life balance came out in the surveypersuade HR that the equalities monitoring offer. which I think is really important for us. Thatdata could be collected without candidates When pitching to potential recruitsis something we can offer. having to complete the full application form. whether from local government orSometimes we talk about it and then stillMore fundamentally, and as also noted elsewhereit was agreed that localwork people 12 hours a day or whatever.by many respondents to the careers survey, authorities need to emphasise these pointsand thats something weve got to watchthere are a number of structural issues in their advertising. From our experience offor if we are going to make that our bigwithin local government that work against recruitment advertising at Public Law Jobs,retention offer but also at the home workingthem in the recruitment market, not least this does not happen very often with manywere very good. the agile working. Ithe lack of financial recognition for lawyers ads using very generic language.think we can do really well on that sidethat develop technical expertise without the To this end, HB Public Law providesof things and also people tell me that themanagement responsibilities that usually open evenings and even week-long workMillennialswhoever they areare muchcome with promotion to senior or principal'