Information for job applicants
Thank you for expressing an interest
in working for Worcestershire County Council. If you would like
more information about the organisation, or the job you are
applying for please call 01905 765765.
About Worcestershire County
Council:
We are one of the largest and most progressive employers in the
region, with over 18,500 staff and an annual turnover in excess of
£750million. We serve over 500,000 citizens living in
Worcestershire providing a huge range of services.
Our corporate priorities are improving community safety, raising
standards in schools, enhancing services to young people, improving
transport links, providing care for vulnerable and older residents
and strengthening the county’s economy. We also work in partnership
with a number of local businesses, voluntary organisations and
other local authorities such as district and parish councils.
For the past 3 years, we have been rated as ‘excellent’ in the
government’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).
Our ‘Way of working’ values are:
- Customer
focus: Providing high quality services which meet the
expressed needs of the community
- ‘Can do’
culture: Encouraging solutions and creative ways of
working not blocked by bureaucracy
- Freedom within
boundaries: Devolving decision-making and ensuring
services are responsive to needs
Benefits
Package:
Final Salary Pension
Scheme
We offer all employees with a contract
for more than 3 months and who are under the age of 65, the option
of joining the Local Government Pension Scheme. This is one of the
best pensions currently available and was recently valued as being
3x the value of a typical money purchase scheme. If you join, your
monthly pension contributions will be between 5.5% and 7.5% of your
gross pay, dependant upon your salary. These contributions enjoy
tax relief at source and provide:
- A retirement pension based on
1/60 of your final pay for each year of membership
- Life assurance of 3 times pay
whilst you are a contributing member
- The ability to increase your
pension by paying extra contributions
- Pensions for your husband,
wife, registered civil partner, nominated co-habiting partner and
eligible children
- Pension benefits if you have to
retire due to ill health
- Option to convert some of your
pension into a lump sum
Hours of Work and Flexible
Working Arrangements
Our workforce is vital to our success
hence the working arrangements that we offer are intended to allow
you and your manager to best match your personal needs with the
needs of the organisation. We aim to enable you to find a positive
balance between your work and home life. We believe that this
benefits you and the organisation as a whole, as it leads to a more
focused, happier and healthier workforce. The standard full-time
working week is 37 hours. We also offer various alternative working
arrangements, such as part time working, term time only contracts,
home-working, compressed working hours (e.g. 9 day fortnights) or
job sharing. If you would like any of these alternative
arrangements to be considered, please mention this in your
application. If your personal circumstances change during your
employment and you wish to change your working arrangements, you
can apply to do so.
Flexible Working Hours System
(flexi-time)
We operate a system of flexible
working hours wherever this is practical. This gives you some
control over when you want to work your hours, as long as you
complete your contracted hours and the needs of the service are
met. You may start work between 7.30am and 9.30am and finish work
between 4.00pm and 6.30pm. The lunch period is between 11.45am and
2.15pm; you must take a break of between thirty minutes and two
hours. In certain areas, e.g. residential care, flexible working is
impractical and individual directorate arrangements are made.
Training and
Development
We are committed to providing all
employees with training and development opportunities that are
appropriate to their personal needs and those of the organisation
as a whole. Involving yourself in ongoing learning throughout your
career is an essential part of the job, and one that will be
supported by your manager and the Development and Training team.
Financial assistance and other support are available for employees
undertaking training relevant to organisational needs. We also
offer employees undertaking approved courses paid pre-examination
leave to revise.
Salary Payment and
Progression
Subject to continuing satisfactory
performance and six months employment in the grade, incremental
salary increases are paid on 1st April every year for most groups
of staff, until the maximum of the salary scale is reached. In
exceptional circumstances, individuals can be awarded accelerated
increments to recognise special merit or ability. Additionally,
there is a nationally negotiated pay award, payable from the 1st
April each year. For most posts, salaries are paid into your bank
or building society on the 28th day of each month.
Continuity of
Service
If you have previous continuous
service in local government or with a recognised related employer,
this may be taken into account in determining certain benefits such
as annual leave, occupational sick pay and maternity leave, and a
break in service of up to 8 years (with no other paid full-time
work undertaken) taken to care for children or dependants may be
ignored except for calculating annual leave entitlement, where the
time limit does not apply.
Annual
Leave
The leave year runs from 1st April to
31st March. You will be entitled to 25 days paid annual leave, in
addition to general public holidays. This includes two extra
statutory days leave, which are ‘fixed’ following certain public
holidays for employees at some operational units. Your annual leave
entitlement increases to 30 days after 5 years’ continuous service.
Holiday entitlement for part-time staff is calculated pro-rata to
the full year entitlement and expressed in hours. Employees who
join the Authority directly from another employer (public or
private sector) can have their previous level of annual leave
entitlement preserved, up to a maximum of 30 days. This is subject
to the receipt of written confirmation from your previous employer
of your former annual leave entitlement. Employees who benefit from
this provision cannot exceed 30 days annual leave in total at any
stage of their employment. Therefore, if you reach five years
continuous local government service, then 30 days would be your
total entitlement. The annual leave entitlement for workers leaving
or joining an authority is proportionate to their complete service
during the leave year.
Annual Leave for
Youth and Community Workers is 30
days, in addition to statutory and general public
holidays; workers who immediately prior to the commencement of the
leave year have not less than five years’ continuous local
authority and/or youth and community work service are entitled to
35 days annual leave.
Health and Well Being
We take the health of our employees
seriously and among other pro-active measures, have an Occupational
Health Service whose work is centred on promoting well being,
advising on reducing the impact of work on health and offering free
information programmes to eligible staff. We also provide a free
and confidential staff counselling service. In addition to
providing statutory sick pay, we offer occupational sick pay. This
starts at one month at full pay and rises with each complete year
of service up to six months at full pay and six months at half pay
after five years’ service.
Childcare Voucher
Scheme
If you have children, you can save
money by using our Childcare Voucher scheme to help towards your
childcare costs. You can use vouchers to pay your (registered)
carers and setting up a scheme enables staff and the Council to
both save money as the vouchers are tax and National Insurance (NI)
exempt up to £55 a week or £243 per month.
Time off and other
Leave
You will not normally be expected to
work overtime. However, when it is required, time off in lieu is
usually granted instead of overtime payments. For example, if you
work an extra four hours to meet a deadline, you might agree with
your supervisor to leave earlier one day to reclaim the four extra
hours. Special leave is available to provide you with time off in
the event of serious family illness, bereavement, or family or
domestic crises. Unpaid Parental leave is available to allow you to
spend more time with your children while they are young and to
relieve some of the stresses of working and caring. Paternity or
maternity support leave can be taken to support the mother of a
newborn baby, look after the baby or support a partner who is
adopting a child. Maternity leave or adoption leave provide up to
52 weeks leave. Members of the Reserved Forces and the Territorial
Army are granted two weeks’ additional paid leave for attendance at
summer camp. Retained Fire-fighters are granted paid leave to
undertake their duties, subject to prior approval.
Relationships with Trade
Unions
The County Council believes that
having positive relationships with recognised trade unions is an
essential component of a successful organisation. Although you are
under no obligation to be a member of a trade union you are free to
join any union of your choice. The Council recognises a number of
trade unions and consults with them on a wide range of employment
issues.
Equality and
Diversity
The Council is committed to the fair
treatment of its staff, potential staff or users of services
regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation,
responsibilities for dependants, age, disability or offending
background. Employees can join the Black Colleagues Group or
Disability Equality Group that provide advice and mutual support to
their members, and meet every 4-6 weeks. The groups also offer
advice to the Council, channelled through individuals and
management groups, which relates to many areas including the
recruitment and retention of Black employees or those with a
disability, service development and policy issues.
Relocation, Removal and
Disturbance Allowances
A scheme of Allowances is available to
provide financial assistance to an eligible employee, following
approval by the Head of Service/Director, who needs to move home as
a result of accepting an appointment. The Scheme provides help
towards removal expenses, legal fees, estate agents’ fees,
disturbance expenses and additional accommodation costs. Please ask
for further details.
Staff Travel Plan and Car Parking
Arrangements
The staff travel plan offers employees
and visitors improved transport choice and reduces the need to
travel, helping reduce congestion, improve air quality and promote
sustainable travel. Travel choices offered may include bus, train,
bicycles, walking, motorcycles and car sharing, to reduce reliance
on single occupancy car travel for commuter journeys and business
travel. At County Hall Campus (including Wildwood and Countryside
Centre), there are parking restrictions in terms of the number of
spaces available to staff. However, there are designated parking
spaces for car sharers, a short-stay area for staff only attending
meetings and a visitors’ car park. Based on the parking
restrictions and to support the Staff Travel Plan, all staff are
encouraged to drive to work in a car on their own for no more than
three days a week and consider either changing their travel choice
(as described as above) or alternative working arrangements such as
home-working, managing their diary to work at other locations or
compressed working hours for the other days.
Criminal Records Checks and
Safeguarding
As an organisation using the Criminal
Records Bureau (CRB) Disclosure service to assess applicants’
suitability for employment, the Council complies with the CRB Code
of Practice and undertakes to treat all applicants for positions
fairly. It undertakes not to discriminate unfairly against any
subject of a Disclosure on the basis of conviction or other
information revealed. Worcestershire County Council is committed to
safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young
people, and vulnerable adults, and expects all staff and volunteers
to share this commitment.
References
If you apply for a job with the
council, you will need to give the names and addresses of two
referees, one of whom must be your current or most recent employer,
or work experience provider. Some applicants may not be able to
provide this, for example those who are applying to join us
straight from education. In these cases, at least one of the
references should be sought from a person in a position of
responsibility, who has knowledge of you, as the applicant. This
could be a tutor or lecturer. The second referee can be anyone who
can comment on your suitability for the job you are applying for,
including a previous employer. As they are invariably
complimentary, personal or character references from family members
are not acceptable. Any offer of employment made to you will be
dependent on whether we receive references that are satisfactory
for our purposes from the two people you nominate. We will contact
your referees only if we offer you the job and not before.
Standard Retirement
Age:
The County Council’s standard
retirement age is 65. The Council does not normally recruit beyond
the age of 64.5 years unless specified in the job advertisement.
(This refers to applicants aged 64.5 at the date of their
application) This is in accordance with the Employment Equality
(Age) Regulations 2006. These Regulations, in relation to
discrimination in employment do not apply in relation to a
person:
(a) whose age is greater than the
employer’s normal retirement age; or
(b) who would, within a period of six
months from the date of application to the employer, reach the
employer’s normal retirement age.
Therefore, if you fall into either of
the above categories it is lawful and reasonable for us to adhere
to our recruitment policy
