About Norwich City Council

The council was established in 1974 following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1972, which replaced the county borough of Norwich. Since then the city has been governed by two tiers of local government. The upper tier is Norfolk County Council, which manages strategic services such as schools, social services and libraries across the county of Norfolk. The lower tier is Norwich City Council, which manages local services such as housing, planning, leisure and tourism.

Norwich City Council consists of 39 councillors, elected to represent 13 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under Labour control and led by Alan Waters. NCC is responsible for local services such as housing, planning, leisure, and tourism.

Why work for Norwich City Council

Pay and benefits

Norwich City Council offers the opportunity to work with great people who are passionate about promoting Norwich and the services the council provides. We also offer good career prospects with competitive rates of pay, generous holidays and working arrangements to suit all lifestyles.

Pay

Norwich City Council is proud to have Living Wage accreditation from the national Living Wage Foundation. We are committed to paying and promoting living wage which is defined as a level of income required to maintain a safe, decent standard of living and the ability to save for future needs. The minimum hourly rate of pay for all jobs within Norwich City Council meets the living wage rate for outside of London, details can be found on the Living Wage Foundation website.

Pension scheme

All employees are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) which became a salary average pension scheme from the 1 April 2014. Employee’s contributions range from 5.5% to a maximum of 12.5% (dependent on salary – employees paid below £34K pay up to 6.8%) of the pay received.

Annual leave

Paid holiday entitlement starts at 25 days per annum and increases with length of service to a maximum of 32 days per annum. This is pro rata for part-time employees.

In addition, there are eight public holidays and an additional statutory day leave at Christmas.

Work-life balance - flexible employment

In the majority of our service areas, we operate flexible working hours to carry out duties during a range of hours. This is subject to the business needs of each individual service. Many of our employees are able to participate in the flexi-time scheme and if approved by your manager this may result in two flex leave days in a month where hours have been accrued.

We have a hybrid working arrangement in place which allows our employees to work remotely for up to 50% of their working week subject to business need.

All employees are provided with a laptop to allow them to work in a fully agile way.

Sickness

If you are unwell, entitlement to sick pay is determined by length of service within local government, as detailed:

• During first four months of service – one month’s full pay
• During first year, after four months service – one month’s full and two month's half pay
• During second year of service – two month’s full and two month's half pay
• During third year of service – four month’s full and four month's half pay
• During fourth and fifth years of service – five month’s full and five month's half pay
• After five years’ service – six month’s full and six month's half pay

Family friendly policies

Norwich City Council operates not only a maternity support leave scheme, paternity leave and an adoption leave but also has policies for parental leave and paid time off for care of dependants, which may be taken in specific circumstances.

Health and wellbeing

Norwich City Council supports its employees through the provision of occupational health and employee assistance support. The occupational health contract enables us to support employees with health issues that are affecting their attendance and work, this may be through reasonable adjustments or the provision of specialist equipment.

Through the employee assistance programme, we provide confidential support, counselling and legal or financial information to employees relating to work or personal issues. Family members over the age of 16 years living in the same household can also access the service.

Other wellbeing activities are also provided such as free flu vaccinations, personal health checks and free eye tests for VDU users in-line with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance.

Learning and development

All new employees will undertake an induction programme at the start of their employment. Following this, the council continues to invest in its employees to support the development of skills needed to perform effectively in their position both now and in the future.