Public Sector jobs in Local Government and Emergency Services

Benefits and Rewards

We offer a range of generous benefits and rewards, because we believe that a healthy work life balance means happy employees.

Flexible and agile working 

Westminster City Council understands the importance of employees being able to balance their work and home lives. One of the ways of supporting this is through facilitating agile working. By enabling our staff to work agilely, we aim to create a more responsive, efficient and effective organisation; which advances business performance, increases customer satisfaction and improves the health and wellbeing of our staff. We are a Timewise accredited organisation.

Work Equipment - Working from an alternative space than the office you can claim back home working equipment including, chair, monitor, mouse and keyboard and headset.

Holiday

We offer our staff a generous annual leave allowance.

• 30 days of annual leave plus 8 bank holidays, pro rata for part time staff
• 1 additional day of leave to be taken on/or around your birthday
• Employees can carry over up to 5 days unused annual leave into the following leave entitlement year
• Employees are able to buy extra annual leave days and spread the cost over the remaining months in the same leave year. There are two opportunities per year to buy additional annual leave

Volunteering

We understand that volunteering opportunities are important to our staff, so we will support you with paid 16 hours per financial year in which to take time out of work to use on volunteering activities anywhere you choose.

Pension scheme

You will automatically be enrolled in the generous Local Government Pension scheme. You can still opt out, but as the second highest financial reward Westminster will provide you with, it pays to pay in the pension scheme.

Season ticket loan

We offer interest-free loans on public transport season tickets, allowing you to pay this back in monthly instalments.

Childcare and parental leave

We offer a significant reduction in the cost of registered childcare by signing up for Tax Free Childcare. Eligible families receive 20% of their annual childcare cost.

Our parental leave policies were revamped in 2019 and entitlement now includes 6 months full paid and 6 months half paid leave for maternity and shared parental leave. We are also an ‘Employer with heart’, meaning that employees whose babies are born prematurely (before 37 weeks gestation) will have their fully paid parental leave extended by the number of days their baby was born prior to the due date.

Cycle to work scheme

Employees can purchase a bike and accessories for up to the value of £2,000 from a list of local bike retailers or Halfords stores. The value is spread across a period of 12 months and can deliver savings of up to 32%.

Discounts

Our benefits platform (Sodexo) offers a great range of savings including but not limited to: IKEA eVouchers - 5.5% off, Argos eVouchers - 6% off, Tesco eVouchers - 4% off, Currys PC World eVouchers - 8% off. Other offerings include the Spree Cashback Card and Cinema and Sky Store Discounts.

Victoria privilege card Entitles cardholders to discounts on fine dining, attractions and retail stores in the Victoria area and free events.

ActiveWestminster Card, Fantastic discounts and benefits for staff including free swim, 30% off activities and gym membership from £20pcm (or £200pa).

Health and wellbeing

Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a 24/7 free support tool for our employees and their families.

You can call up and speak to the EAP about practically anything; from speaking to a counsellor to receive mental health support to obtaining legal advice. Your loved ones can access this support too, they just need to let the person triaging the call know that they are a relative of someone who works for the council.

Health and wellbeing hub, this is your one-stop-shop for all your health and wellbeing information needs.

The hub hosts plenty of information and resources as well as signposting to other external sources of support.

We have dedicated pages to Women’s and Men’s health, the 5 ways to wellbeing, bereavement support, and mental health and wellbeing to name just a few.

Occupational Health, to support yourselves as well as the council our in-house team offer advice and guidance to support a proactive approach to managing the health of individuals in the workplace. They offer a range of services including medical referrals, managers support for sickness absence cases and regular wellbeing clinics with qualified nurses.

Wellbeing Clinics - These take place quarterly and are now delivered virtually. A 30-minute confidential chat via Microsoft Teams with a qualified Occupational Health nurse, about your general health and any health concerns you may have.

Women’s Reproductive Health Policy - Introduced in March 2021 to demonstrate to demonstrate the importance we as a council place, on addressing the topic of women’s reproductive health in the workplace.

Eye Test & Corrective Lenses - Employees can claim back for an eye test and up to £65 for corrective lenses.

Supporting and developing staff

We want you to achieve your goals, so we are fully committed to developing your skills and experience, enabling you to succeed both now and in the future. The learning and development that we offer is relevant to the changing needs of the council, catering for a range of learning styles and offers choice and flexibility.

Rewarding your contribution

We have developed a culture where great performance and effort is recognised, rewarded and celebrated, and we offer a scheme whereby staff can receive a one-off monetary payment once a year for undertaking outstanding work.

Professional subscriptions

We will reimburse the cost of one relevant professional subscription each year, allowing you to maintain your industry knowledge and expertise.

Support Groups and active staff networks