During the two-year Impact programme with us, you'll have a minimum of three placements. You'll also get involved in cross-cutting, council-wide projects.

It's our aim to help you work at the highest levels in the organisation, and we'll provide you with the experience and chance to support:

  • the Chief Executive
  • the senior management team
  • elected members, including the cabinet

Our council is structured into five directorates. Each contributes to our Council Plan and priorities. Each directorate has different, complex projects either in progress or on the horizon to help deliver our vision.

Your first placement will be based within one of our directorates, supporting one or more of the cross-cutting corporate projects. We'll then make sure there's suitable rotation, aligned with the requirements of the programme. This will make sure that your time on the programme gives you an all-round experience of what it means to be a local government officer.

Projects our previous graduates have been involved with

The work our previous graduates have been involved with includes the following:

Projects in the Chief Executive's office

  • Work programme design
  • Funding reform Secretary of State lobbying
  • COVID-19 inquiry
  • Council of the Year
  • Peer reviews cabinet report
  • 2024 corporate peer challenge - including logistics, steering group meetings, evidence bank, position statement, briefings/interviews, presentation and on-site visits
  • Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (SIGOMA) – writing policy bulletins
  • Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission
  • Yorkshire Universities and Y-Pern
  • Writing formal letter of thanks to Duke of Edinburgh following town centre bridge naming
  • Drafting Local Government Chronical award entries
  • Planning and minuting Barnsley 2030 Board meetings
  • Carrying out Barnsley 2030 stock take
  • Attending and minuting senior management team meetings
  • Shadowing Sarah Norman - Chief Executive at South Yorkshire Chief Executive meetings and cabinet briefing
  • Aspiring chief executive's visit
  • Creation of a neurodiversity policy
  • Facilitating the creation of two staff networks
  • Updating the equality, diversity and inclusion report and plan

Projects in Children's Services

  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) review
  • Section 175 safeguarding audit
  • Leadership development sessions
  • Joint targeted area inspection support
  • Children's social care development plan - performance and data workstream support
  • Support the Great Childhoods Ambition with guidance from the project manager
  • Financial/commissioning review – supporting families
  • Childcare sufficiency report
  • Evidence collection and quality assurance for a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Ofsted inspection

Projects in Core Services

  • Business support review
  • Partnership governance arrangements
  • Red tape group support
  • Council Plan- reviewing the metrics
  • Adult social care survey of adult carers in England statutory return - analysis of the data collected, establishing trends etc
  • Procurement – translation and interpretation

Projects in Growth and Sustainability

  • Economic renewal action plan programme management
  • The Seam consultation
  • Hilary Cottam visit
  • Climate adaptations plans
  • Town centre events – Halloween, Barnsley Bright Nights (planning, delivery and evaluation), Christmas markets
  • Royal visit
  • Council fleet efficiency project - included creating a business case for smart waste technology and reviewing what different providers could offer to enhance the councils fleet
  • Hire fleet forecasting for the upcoming year
  • Reviewing different fuel types/electric vehicles to reduce our CO2 emissions
  • Finding innovative solutions to modernise the workshop functions at Smithies Depot

Projects in Place Health and Adult Social Care

  • Draft Barnsley integrated health inequalities action plan
  • Barnsley care conference
  • Health and care Barnsley virtual jobs fairs
  • Health education England recruitment funding bid
  • Full system review of services supporting people living with dementia and their carers (acting project manager)
  • Present at a public engagement conference
  • Review and influence Barnsley Dementia Strategy
  • Review whether equality, diversity and inclusion is integrated into adult social care functions

Projects in Public Health and Communities

  • Director of Public Health annual report
  • Teenage pregnancy work
  • Public health 0-19 communications - children and young people substance misuse health needs assessment
  • Homelessness strategy

Support you'll receive

In Barnsley, we're very keen to support you to develop in line with your career aspirations. You'll be able to influence your placements, aligning business need with your preferences. This is one of the real positives for our current and previous trainees who have all undertaken placements in the areas of their choice. Most of our graduates have gone on to secure permanent roles in those areas.

You'll be well supported if you join us and have access to:

  • a mentor - these are separate to your line manager (usually be a previous national management trainee that now works for us) and can support you as you settle into the authority
  • the Young Employees Network - this was set up by our graduates and is a space to informally connect with others working for us, including monthly lunches and volunteering days
  • our coordinators - these can help you consider and line up future placements and provide general support to make sure you achieve the most from the programme
  • employee networks - we have many networks to support and empower employees, such as our Proud network and our BME RISE (Black and minority ethnic race identity social equity) network

Contact us

If you're interested in joining us you can apply for the Impact programme on the Local Government Association's website.

If you have any questions, email us at organisationdevelopment@barnsley.gov.uk.