Social enterprise arranges new Yorkshire hires to tackle local government 'skills crisis'

Non-profit body Public Practice has announced 41 new placements as part of a geographic expansion, with three posts being filled in Yorkshire.

The placements in Yorkshire are Katie Kavanagh, Tim Johns and Thomas Tzortzi.

Katie Kavanagh is joining Calderdale Council as Housing Delivery and Design Manager on a two-year placement as the council gets closer to the anticipated adoption of its Local Plan. The Local Plan is expected to facilitate the delivery of nearly 15,000 new homes up to 2032/33. Katie will promote and shape the quality of new homes coming forward on new and stalled sites across Calderdale.

Tim Johns is joining North Yorkshire County Council as a senior policy officer for planning and environment.

Thomas Tzortzi is joining Historic England as an Historic Place Adviser where he will be working across the North East, North West and Yorkshire.

The geographic growth comes after local authorities across England have received more that £8bn of investment from the Government’s Towns Fund (£3.6bn) and Levelling Up Fund (£4.8bn) to create better places for people to live, work and visit.

The expansion of Public Practice has been funded by a £200,000 investment by Homes England supported by the Department of Levelling Up, Homes and Communities.

However, Public Practice’s survey revealed that four-fifths (79 per cent) of local authorities said attracting skilled staff is their largest recruitment issue.

Over the past decade, there has been a fall of around 321,300 full time employees in local government - a reduction of almost a quarter (24 per cent) since 2012.

Over the past five years Public Practice has attracted more than 2,500 professionals to apply to its placement programme, 92 per cent of which have come from people currently working outside of the public sector. It has gone to arrange placements for more than 260 professionals in 73 different public sector bodies.

The not-for-profit social enterprise has a mission to rebuild skills and capacity in the public sector to help improve places and communities across England.

To date Public Practice has had 264 place professionals in 73 public sector bodies across England.

Pooja Agrawal, CEO of Public Practice, said: “We are proud to welcome our largest ever cohort of built environment professionals to new placements in local government. Our expansion into Yorkshire comes at a very exciting time. Since 2019 councils across England have been able to start bidding for funding from the Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund - a combined pot worth more than £8bn.

“This has created exceptionally interesting opportunities for placemaking professionals who now have a chance to help build better places and shape the future of towns and cities across England for generations.

“However, it is clear that local authorities have substantial skills gaps and are understandably concerned about delivering these projects on the ground amidst growing political and economic uncertainty. Our Resourcing and Skills Survey, shows that the biggest recruitment barrier councils face is attracting the right people with the right skills to meet their ambitions.

“Public Practice can help to fill that gap by bringing private sector placemaking expertise into the public sector. People who want to come in and make a difference to places local to them and towns and cities across England. More than nine-tenths of Public Practice associates stay in local government after their initial placement ends.”