There are lots of benefits and rewards to working for us, ranging from additional annual leave to a fantastic pension scheme.
Pay
We pay our employees as per Green Book, Burgundy Book, and Soulbury pay scales. The details of these are available at any point during your employment. Every April you will move up a scale-point until you reach the top of the grade.
Our pay day is on the 27th of the month, with an earlier pay day for Christmas.
Annual Leave
Employees with less than five years’ service get 26 days annual leave. Once you reach five years' service, this increases to 31 days (or pro rata if you are part-time).
You have the option of buying up to 24 extra days of leave, to help with flexibility, caring responsibilities, or a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
You are also entitled to all bank holidays. But don’t worry if you don’t work on a Monday, you are still entitled to that day off!
Flexible Working Arrangements
We offer different working arrangements so you can have a healthy work-life balance, including reduced hours, nine-day fortnights, and flexi-time. Many of our employees use flexible working to help them with the school run or missing the rush hour traffic.
We also offer hybrid working arrangements when the role allows it. You can work from home, your main office, or other council buildings, all supported by modern technology.
Local Government Pension Scheme
We operate the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
You are automatically admitted into the scheme once you are appointed. You'll start making contributions unless you don’t earn over the statutory amount, are aged under 22 or you choose to opt out. Pension deductions are based on the full-time equivalent salary. If it helps financially, you can opt to pay 50%.
Childcare and Dependents Support
We welcome working parents and offer a range of options to support them throughout their careers. As well as flexible working options to support with school pick-ups to paid time off for dependents and others in your care.
You can also find further information regarding childcare support options offered by HMRC.
Salary Sacrifice
We have a number of salary sacrifice schemes which can be a benefit to you if you need a new car, a new bike, top-up your pension, or even secure a loan! These salary sacrifices are deducted from your gross salary so you save on tax payments – win win!
Our cycle to work scheme provides bikes and equipment that can be bought from bicycle retailers as part of a loan scheme, which takes monthly instalments from your wage and reduces your tax payments as part of the purchase.
Our car benefit scheme (Tusker) is designed to allow employees to drive a car of their choice at a competitive price, complete with insurance, servicing, tax, breakdown cover and tyres via salary sacrifice. The only extra thing you need to pay for is the fuel.
Training and Development
We offer a continuous programme of training and development for our employees. As well as a comprehensive e-learning packages, there are lots of face-to-face training opportunities to enhance your skills.
We also offer a wide range of professional development, through the apprenticeship levy. Employees can make applications, for all types of technical, professional and managerial courses.
As a large organisation, we are also in the unique position to offer you opportunities of moving around the council to experience other departments and services to gain a wider understanding of the organisation as a whole, develop your networks and broaden your own career opportunities.
Professional Fees
As an employer we support continuing professional development and you may be entitled to your annual membership subscription to a professional body or institute. We have employees who are members of CIPD, CIPP, RICS, Social Work England, and more.
We value our Social Workers highly and continues to pay professional fees for their registration with Social Work England.
Modern Working
We have a number of offices that provide a modern, technologically advance, and comfortable workspace to support new and innovative ways of working. We promote agile working and our digital support will enable connected working now and into the future, wherever you base yourself.
We have renovated the historic Blackburn Town Hall to accommodate a more modern working approach, and our Duke Street and One Cathedral Square offices are contemporary working spaces with open plan seating and rooms for collaborative working between teams.