We offer a cost-effective route for authorities looking to employ high-quality placemaking professionals to build additional in-house expertise.

Public Practice is uniquely positioned to act as a facilitator between local authorities struggling to find the right skills for their team and built environment professionals seeking to transition into the public sector but finding it a hard process to navigate.

As a not-for-profit, our service is an affordable alternative to recruiting through private agencies. In addition, if you choose to keep an Associate on beyond the end of their placement, we do not charge a retention fee.

We accept applications from candidates from eight key built environment disciplines. All candidates are required to have at least three years of professional work experience in one of these disciplines.

All roles submitted for recruitment through our Associate Programme must be eligible and suitable for at least one of the following disciplines and not require any prior public sector experience.

You can read our Case Study stories for further examples of the types of roles and jobs that built environment professionals do in the public sector.

We recruit Associates for public sector jobs across all regions of England

Our job placements may be based in any public sector⁹ organisation, this includes local or city authorities, combined authorities, development corporations or publicly-led delivery vehicles, and more.

Each round of recruitment for a cohort is different, and roles and locations will vary each time. When applying, applicants can select which regions across England they would be willing to work in and their maximum commuting preference. This will be used as the basis for job matching.

We run two recruitment rounds a year (during May and November) where both the applicants and Authorities participate in the hiring process. Job contracts then start in either October or April.

Below is a summary of the process.

If you are interested in hiring an Associate, book a call with our Partnerships Manager to discuss your recruitment needs.

We take the time to understand your team's needs and skill gaps, then match you with the best Associate for your role. Once you’ve spoken to our team, we will ask you to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the role you would like to recruit for in time for our next cohort.

Applications for the Autumn 2024 Cohort are now open

Our Autumn 2024 cohort will start their employment contracts with public sector organisations at the beginning of October 2024. Applications close at 2 pm on Thursday, 30 May 2024.

The first stage of our multi-staged recruitment process requires all applicants to apply through our online portal. As part of this application, you will be asked to submit the following information:

• Information about yourself
• A redacted text-based CV
• Proof of your right to work in the UK (Passport & Visa if required)
• Answers to four application questions
• Diversity tracking data
• Public Sector perception questions

All applications will be checked to ensure applicants have the right to work in the UK and meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the Associate Programme. Application questions will also be checked against an AI detector software.

Three judges will anonymously assess your four application questions. The assessors will only see your answers to the four application questions and no other information included in your application.

Assessors are given specific scoring criteria from which to mark from, please make sure you answer the question specifically.

We host several Applicant Information Sessions during the application window, during which you can hear from Alums of the programme and ask our team questions.

If you have any more specific questions about the application process or the programme, please contact us via email.