Impact: The Local Government Graduate Development Programme 2025/26 – council information pack

There has never been a more important time for councils to develop the future leaders of our sector. Local government is undergoing a period of significant change, but the need to build capacity by recruiting the next generation of senior leaders remains. It is more important than ever that we invest in a pipeline of talent, to future proof our workforce and our sector.

Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme (previously the NGDP) has been developing new talent for over 20 years. The programme attracts high calibre graduates who are driven, passionate and committed to improving their communities.

Impact is highly regarded by councils, graduates and the wider sector, consistently ranked in the Times Top 100 graduate employers in the UK and shortlisted in the Target Jobs National 2024 Recruitment Awards for ‘most popular graduate recruiter in the public sector’. Impact offers councils access to a wide and diverse candidate pool of thousands of graduates across the country, and a rigorous, multi-stage assessment process that selects the best and brightest graduates for council interviews. We can help you recruit talented graduates with real leadership potential, a desire to make a difference, and the capacity to deliver change and transformation. The team manage the end-to-end marketing and recruitment processes, relieving your organisation of the time, effort and cost that a national scale recruitment entails.

Graduates add real value and capacity to your organisation from day one and can be a flexible resource for strategic and corporate priorities. As well as recruiting from our diverse, national talent pool, we offer councils flexible options to suit organisations’ needs. This could allow you to recruit graduates who live and work locally, develop existing talent within your organisation, or partner with another council to take on trainees.

I know from my experience working in councils the value of employing an Impact graduate. At the Local Government Association (LGA), we take on new graduates every year, who make a real difference to our organisation. We are also incredibly proud of our alumni network, which includes senior managers, directors and chief executives, who make a massive contribution across the sector as their local government careers flourish.

If you are interested in getting on board, please get in touch so that we can help you attract and retain the brightest and best in the public sector.

Joanna Killian
Chief Executive
Local Government Association

The only national graduate programme for local government.

Impact is the LGA’s flagship graduate development programme. It offers councils a unique opportunity to tap into a pipeline of talent and grow future leaders of the sector. Every year it provides the sector with high quality graduates ready to work on strategic projects which contribute to the delivery of your council’s goals.

Impact is a two-year programme, where graduates are employed by councils and undertake a minimum of three placements within their host authorities. Your council will have full control over what placements to offer the trainees, based on the individual needs and priorities of your organisation. We can provide advice and guidance on appropriate placements to ensure you get the best out of your trainees.

The LGA provides a prestigious learning and development offer which is undertaken alongside their employment, so that the graduates can implement their learning whilst working on projects that contribute to organisational aims.

By the end of the two-year period the graduates will have developed skills across a variety of areas and would be ready to take on more senior roles in any service area. Impact acts as an opportunity for talented graduates to fast track their local government career and gives councils the opportunity to nurture and develop the future leadership talent of the sector.

Impact provides councils with management trainees who have leadership potential and the capacity to work enthusiastically on innovative and strategic projects. To help realise this potential it also provides a bespoke and prestigious learning and development programme to all graduates recruited.

Welcoming graduates from the Local Government Association’s programme has been a real asset to EMCCA, especially as we navigated the early stages of our startup journey. Their energy, fresh perspectives, and commitment have helped us shape a more strategic and inclusive approach to early talent, while also making meaningful contributions to our programmes and delivery. The recruitment process itself was impressive – thoughtfully designed to attract a diverse pool of candidates and align their motivations and strengths with our organisational needs. It’s been a great example of how investing in early careers can bring real value to public service. We’re proud to be part of a programme that champions both talent and inclusion.”

Julie Harris, Interim HR & OD Director, East Midlands Combined County Authority

Building capacity

Impact helps councils to build capacity in their workforce and the sector. Being part of Impact allows councils to start thinking earlier about longer-term succession planning and future leadership potential. Growing your own talent is less costly than recruiting higher up in the management structure and taking on a graduate through Impact ensures you will have additional corporate capacity and capability at a senior level.

Amongst our alumni you’ll find chief executives, directors, senior managers and others leading transformational change across the sector.

National networking

By employing graduates as part of Impact, your management trainees will have access to a large national network of other trainees, as well as access to a range of partners. This not only enriches the experience for the trainee but also brings a wealth of best practice and knowledge back to your council.

Making recruitment easy for you

As a national scheme, Impact promotes local government to graduates across the country on behalf of councils. Last year, we received a record number of applications as over 8,000 candidates applied to Impact. The scheme is highly popular and competitive, with only a very small proportion of applicants securing a role with councils.

The LGA runs a rigorous, multi-stage recruitment process, all using bespoke assessments designed for local government. We ensure that the highest-calibre graduates are then put forward to interview at your council. All applicants must have a minimum of a 2:2 degree and have to pass situational judgement and video assessments before taking part in a local government assessment centre.

Graduate recruitment can be time-consuming and demanding on council resources. Impact gives councils access to a national marketing and recruitment campaign to draw from a large talent pool, reducing costs and helping to identify the most promising future leaders for your council.

Diversity

Impact recruits graduates from a range of different backgrounds, universities and degree disciplines. Our aim is to reflect the diverse communities that we serve. Impact has done a huge amount of work to ensure the diversity of the graduates coming through reflects the diversity of the communities you serve. Find out more about this by visiting our diversity and inclusion webpage.

Impact offers a range of flexible options for councils to take part.

Recruiting locally

Taking part in Impact offers councils access to a national pool of high calibre graduates, however we recognise that some councils may wish to prioritise applicants from their own communities. We provide a range of options for councils who wish to participate in the programme at a local level. We can work with you to decide what ‘local’ means to you and support you with your own local recruitment campaign to target those candidates. Successful candidates then become part of the national programme and have access to the same learning and development opportunities as the other trainees.

Developing your own talent

Impact can offer an exciting and appealing development opportunity to internal staff who you have identified as the future managerial leaders of your council. We can support you to grow your own talent, by offering your existing graduate employees the opportunity to join Impact and access the learning and development offer. All graduate trainees on Impact need to successfully pass each stage of the recruitment process. Join with a partner organisation You can work with a partner authority or group of authorities to join the scheme, sharing the costs. In recent years we have already had combined authorities, counties partnering with districts, and housing and transport organisations take part in Impact.

The options

National recruitment

• Recruiting through a national pool of graduates from across the UK
• Our rigorous and competitive recruitment process means we select the highest calibre graduates for you to interview.

Partnership recruitment

All the benefits of participating in the full programme but graduates and their placements are shared between councils. Partnerships and practical arrangements are decided by the councils involved. Graduate employment is divided proportionately between participating councils and the fee per graduate will be split between the councils.

Local recruitment

• Dedicated local application with the council marketing graduate positions to candidates from the local area – with support from the LGA – at the same time as the national campaign.
• Local candidates follow the same assessment process as national candidates, to ensure they meet the same standard.

Successful candidates will become part of the national cohort with access to Impact learning and development, networks and knowledge events.

Please note that the deadline to sign up for local recruitment for Cohort 28 is 1 October 2025.

To support graduates to fast-track their career, we provide a complementary learning and development programme. Graduates gain the chance to learn, network and develop together over the two years, whilst working towards a Chartered Management Institute Level 7 qualification in leadership and management.

The learning and development programme has been designed to develop future leaders and ensure that your council gets a significant return on investment. The objectives of the learning and development are:

• to enable participants to critically evaluate the challenges facing local government
• to provide participants with high level capabilities in management and leadership, grounded in a public sector context
• to provide participants with a strong understanding of key local government areas of work and management
• to enhance personal effectiveness as a leader and manager
• to increase self-awareness and awareness of others.

We ask councils to:

• Help us to promote and raise the profile of the programme locally and attract a diverse and talented pool of candidates.
• Conduct a local interview at the end of the recruitment process. At this stage the candidates will have been through a rigorous series of assessments, but we want to give you the opportunity to ensure they are the best fit for your council.
• Employ graduate trainees on a minimum two-year fixed term contract. The minimum salary for Impact graduates is currently £32,597 (NJC spinal column point (SCP) 20 – this may be subject to increase pending pay negotiations).
• Nominate a member of staff to be the placement coordinator for the programme, once the council’s graduate management trainee(s) are in place.
• Organise a minimum of three placements for each national management trainee over the two years.

What does it cost my council?

The host authority is expected to pay the salary for the graduate (currently £32,597). This is competitive with other public sector graduate programmes. The authority will also be asked to pay a one-off fee, paid per graduate only on their successful appointment (£3,500 for 2025/26). This covers the bespoke, multi-stage recruitment, plus the whole learning and development programme and CMI qualification.

Throughout my own local government career, I’ve been committed to offering opportunities to the aspiring young leaders of tomorrow. Within local government it’s important that we think about the future and how we can grow and support young people into middle and senior leadership roles.”

Monica Fogarty Chief Executive, Warwickshire County Council

• Deliver the national graduate programme on behalf of councils, at a subsidised cost for English councils.
• Market the programme to high-calibre graduates across the UK.
• Assess candidates’ suitability through a rigorous and established multi-stage recruitment process.
• Embed the values of equality, diversity and inclusion at every step of the process.
• Support councils to access and market themselves to candidates.
• Fund and organise a national programme of learning, development and networking.

Attracting, assessing and matching top graduates to your council follows a similar timetable each year. Below is a high-level overview of the recruitment timeline.

• Talk to the LGA about signing up to the scheme.
• Discuss participation in the programme and how you can benefit from the next cohort of high-calibre national management trainees.
• Speak to a council that is already involved.

If you’d like to hear some first-hand experience of Impact and how it has worked in another council, please let us know. The LGA can put you in touch with another authority that can tell you all you need to know about participating.

Contact

Áine Gallagher, Programme Manager
[email protected] or [email protected]