The RTPI's recently published ‘State of the Profession’ report identified, perhaps unsurprisingly, that planners are increasingly being employed in the private sector, with numbers growing by a third over the last decade. The number of planners working in the public sector has reportedly shrunk by a quarter over the same period.

Pleasingly though and perhaps contrary to preconceptions, this flow is not one way and some planners are making the move into or back into the public sector. The recruitment, and indeed the retention, of staff is clearly fundamental to building the skills and capacity within LPAs that is needed if they are to do everything that everybody expects of them.

Helping to facilitate this recruitment is Public Practice, a not-for-profit social enterprise with a mission to build the public sector’s capability to improve the quality, equality and sustainability of places. 

Their leading service is an Associate Programme, which places mid-career built environment practitioners into placements as ‘Associates’ within local authorities to work across a wide range of place-based roles.

In this episode you will hear a chat that Sam Stafford recorded with Pooja Agrawal, CEO at Public Practice, about the work of the organisation, and then you will hear from four professionals who have made the move from private to public. The four are

• Andrew Martin, Principal Planner at East Suffolk Council;
• Iona Norton, Housing, Energy and Sustainability Manager at Greenwich Council;
• Oli Boaler, Economic Development Manager at Rochdale Development Agency; and
• Hannah Haddad, Head of Strategic Planning Applications at Hounslow Council.

Oli and Iona are Public Practice alumni and Hannah is a current Associate. 

You will hear the four of them talk thoughtfully and candidly about their career paths to date and the reasons why they have taken the decisions that they have, as well as their experiences, good and bad, in both private and public sectors.

Some accompanying reading

State of the Profession 2023

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/policy-and-research/state-of-the-profession-2023/

Public Practice’s Associate Programme

https://www.publicpractice.org.uk/associates/apply-associates

Sam’s career advice for his younger self

https://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2020/04/memories-of-200809-career-advice-for-my.html

Some accompanying listening

It’s All About The Benjamins – Puff Daddy, featuring The Notorious B.I.G., Lil' Kim and The Lox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c58ppLPJcQ

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...

'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.

Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html