As the largest employer in England, local government provides a variety of research and analytical career opportunities.
Local government is responsible for many essential services and a research career in this sector is an opportunity for you to contribute to the wellbeing and development of local communities. High quality research skills are key to councils because the ability to gather evidence and apply analysis is fundamental to success.
Possible employers
Local government researchers can be employed in a range of settings, such as:
- local councils
- combined authorities
- local government specialist teams in a number of large private sector research organisations.
Typical research activities
Local government research is varied and provides opportunities to work on a wide range of projects using a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Typical activities could include:
- analysing the wealth of data held by local authorities and their partners, to help them improve their service delivery
- analysing and presenting performance data in an easily understandable way
- developing and conducting research projects, for example, surveys of residents or clients
- synthesising and interpreting research and analysis to inform authorities about the latest evidence and learning for the services they deliver
- producing briefing papers and reports
- commissioning and managing research.
Places to find jobs advertised
You can find jobs related to research in local government from a range of sources, including:
- Councils’ own individual websites
- Broadsheet newspapers (and their websites)
- The Jobs board of the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association (LARIA)
- The local government jobs website LGJobs
- The LGA’s own vacancies page
- The vacancies page of the Social Research Association (SRA)
Other local government opportunities
Although not specifically for researchers, Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme is the LGA’s graduate scheme, designed to fast track the career of graduates with vision and creative thinking, to help them become a senior manager in local government as quickly as possible.
For more information about a career in local government in general, visit the website of the local government employment campaign ‘Make a difference: Work for your local council’.