Throughout the pandemic, local government and our workforces demonstrated a remarkable level of resilience, flexibility, and adaptability. We were able to upskill and reallocate staff to meet the needs of the crisis we faced, but now we need to kick on.

The reality is that we, as local government, are all going to have to compete, and compete hard, for the talent that we need to deliver services now and in the future. This is particularly true in hard-to-reach skills areas, as we grapple with an increasingly competitive marketplace for jobs and demand for dynamic employment packages in a post-pandemic world where hybrid working arrangements are surely here to stay for many, if not all, professions.