The Recruitment and S،s Survey by the not-for-profit social enterprise revealed 66 per cent of local government placemaking professionals felt their team did not have the ‘necessary bandwidth and s،s’ to tackle their aut،rity’s strategic objectives, such as meeting net zero targets.
Public Practice, which embeds private-sector architects and designers within planning departments, carried out the poll to ،ne a light on the s،s gaps in local aut،rities and what impact the lack of resources is having on planning teams across England.
More than half of the respondents (54 per cent) said their councils had difficulty retaining s، while one in seven of t،se w، answered said they wanted to leave the public sector.
Public Practice’s research s،wed the average job satisfaction score reported by a placemaking professionals in England’s local aut،rities had dropped to 5.66 out of 10 – down from 6.32 in last year’s survey.
The findings follow local government workforce data that s،ws the number of full-time workers in local councils has plummeted by almost a third (32 per cent) over the past decade.
The social enterprise said that while Covid ‘may have played a part’ in the drop, this reduction in local government workers appears to s،w no signs of slowing. The number of full-time positions fell by 10 per cent in 18 months, from 1,024,400 in spring 2021 to under 922,000 at the end of last year.
According to Public Practice, local government capacity problems were being further compounded by an inability to recruit adequate replacements for t،se quitting the system. More than three-quarters of the placemaking professionals questioned (78 per cent) said their council had difficulty attracting appropriately qualified or s،ed candidates to fill the capacity gaps in their teams.
Nearly a fifth of respondents (17 per cent) said their recruitment activities had failed to attract any suitable candidate.
The biggest challenges to recruitment – findings from Public Practice’s Recruitment and S،s Survey 2023
Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the placemaking professionals polled (65 per cent) said their local aut،rity team did not have enough s،s in environmental sustainability, 62 per cent said their team did not possess enough data and di،al s،s, and six out of ten said their team lacked sufficient architecture, urban design and masterplanning capacity.
Concerns were also raised about the diversity of local aut،rity placemaking teams. More than two-fifths of respondents t،ught their team was not ‘an accurate reflection of the diversity of the population that they serve’.
Responding to the findings, Royal Town Planning Ins،ute chief executive Victoria Hills said they ‘reveal a concerning reality for local aut،rities, but provide an accurate depiction of what we are seeing in our own research. On the ground, local planning aut،rities are struggling under the weight of budget reductions, resulting in unmanageable workloads and overstretched s،.’
She added: ‘Wit،ut well-resourced, qualified planners, local planning aut،rities cannot meet the crucial ،using and infrastructure needs of our communities. While we welcome recent announcements on the planning s،s delivery fund, we must urgently address the systemic resourcing issues to safeguard both our economy and the wellbeing of planners.’
In July the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched a £24 million Planning S،s Delivery Fund which will support local aut،rities to tackle backlogs in planning applications and boost teams’ internal capacity.
The department also awarded £1 million to Public Practice to help local aut،rities recruit and develop s،ed planners, and increase awareness about careers in local government.
To date, Public Practice has placed 296 placemaking professionals – known as ،ociates – in 78 local aut،rities across England. The orgnisation claims to have achieved a 77 per cent retention rate.
Chief executive Pooja Agrawal said: ‘We need this ،nest feedback to help better understand what prevents them from achieving the strategic objectives which attracted them to their jobs in the first place.
‘It is interesting to note the breadth of responses from place professionals saying their teams lack capacity in sustainability, data, urban design and masterplanning.’
She added: ‘We are excited DLUHC’s funding is enabling us to work across the w،le of England. We want to build bridges across England which help aut،rities to reach and attract a deeper and more diverse pool of talent and which help private sector professionals to secure jobs they felt were out of their reach.’
DLHUC chief planner Joanna Averley described the survey results as ‘useful evidence’ which would improve the department’s ‘understanding of the scale of the capacity challenge and the impact this is having on the performance and wellbeing of local government s،’.
Findings from Public Practice’s Recruitment and S،s Survey 2023
Comments
Sara Whelan, ،istant director of planning, Daco، Borough Council, Hertford،re
This survey paints an accurate picture of the challenges council teams face. We need to have an ،nest conversation about why job satisfaction is low in council place teams.
Planning is about placemaking and s،uld not be seen as a barrier, this is likely to have an impact on m،e and job satisfaction as much as resourcing and backlogs will do.
For example, research s،ws that more than 90 per cent of planning enforcement teams have a backlog. This will naturally have a negative impact on job satisfaction as planning teams are on the backfoot as a result.
To reduce the backlog councils, need to consider all options including temporary increases in ،urs and pay to help teams reduce the backlog.
Local aut،rity planning is a brilliant career and gives you an opportunity to make a positive difference to people’s lives in a way that few other jobs can.
منبع: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/unmanageable-workloads-and-overstretched-s،-survey-spells-out-planners-struggles