Working for Barking and Dagenham

Find out why Barking and Dagenham council is a great place to work.

Benefits of working for us

There are a range of benefits available to staff including:

  • flexible working (including flexi-time, part and term-time working)
  • up to 30 days annual leave
  • Local Government Pension Scheme
  • learning and development 
  • season ticket and travel loans
  • discounted gym membership
  • employee support and networking groups
  • retail, holiday and travel discounts with our Wider Wallet scheme
  • cycle purchase scheme 
  • credit union membership

Download our staff benefits information pack (PDF, 268KB)

Download our staff charter which sets out what you can expect from us and what we expect from our staff (PDF, 328KB)

Our accolades and accreditations

We’re proud of our achievements and our staff who’ve got us here.

Logos of accolades and credits

Social Care Workplace Racial Equality Standards (WRES)

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham was selected as one of 18 local authorities in the UK to pilot the Workplace Racial Equalities Standards methodology, which ensures that employees from black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace.

The council's task was to look at workforce racial equality in Adults and Children’s Services against a set of 9 nationally determined measures - including leadership representation and recruitment – before working with staff to codesign an action plan to improve performance against these metrics. ​

In January 2022, a group of frontline practitioners and managers from across Adult’s and Children’s services took part in a series of workshops to review the data, share their lived experience and to suggest actions that will make a real difference to race equality in Barking & Dagenham council. ​

​The workshops were designed to build on the ideas that had already been developed within Care & Support services throughout 2021, including as part of the development of an anti-racism framework for social care.

The ideas that came out of these workshops were taken through a rigorous development process, involving directors at the council along with experts in this area, to explore viability, feasibility, and connection to other areas of council work.  This process led to the development of a detailed action plan focusing on activities and deliverables. ​ Four metrics were prioritised in the action plan including leadership, career progression and harassment, bullying and abuse experienced by staff.

The term Global Majority is used throughout the action plan. This reflects feedback from the workshop participants, who preferred this term rather than BAME.

Metric one: Leadership

Workshop discussion theme

Desired outcome

Actions Person responsible

Visibility is everything

Support to thrive

Global Majority staff need extra

Support internal (and where appropriate) external talent from the global majority group to achieve success at a leadership level.

Develop and implement a talent management and success planning framework, including developing meaningful targets

Review of existing policies (e.g. secondments, acting up etc.) and further embed to ensure full utilisation

Learning and development to support inclusion training for all, especially those in a leadership position

Broaden mentoring offer, within LBBD and pan-London

Acting Chief Executive & Director of Workforce Change

 

Director of Workforce Change

 

Director of Workforce Change

 

Director of Workforce Change

Metric two: Career Progression

Workshop discussion theme

Desired outcome

Actions Person responsible

Nowhere to go

Manager support

Rewards and incentives

Managers will be more confident regarding career conversations, employees take ownership for their careers.

Fair and competitive approach to reward at a leadership level, with clear pathways to get there. 

Evidence-based approach to ensure people feel valued and engaged.

Ensure all employees are able to play a part in having effective career conversations (and linked to performance management)

 

Complete senior salary review corporate-wide to ensure rewarding fairly and competitively

 

Provide clear pathways for people to work towards the next level – Social Care pathway and leadership pathway

 

 

Reward and recognition in Social Care – conduct exercise (including benchmarking) to identify good principles and share/promote with Social Care managers

Acting Chief Executive & Director of Workforce Change

 

 

 

Acting Chief Executive & Director of Workforce Change

 

Director of Workforce Change

Operational Director for Children's Care and Support, Operational Director for Adult’s Care and Support

 

Strategic Director for Childrens and Adults, Operational Director for Children's Care and Support, Operational Director for Adult’s Care and Support

Metric Three: Harassment, bullying or abuse – residents interacting with service, relatives or public 

Workshop discussion theme

Desired outcome

Actions 

Person responsible

Abuse is normalised

Will something be done?

Zero Tolerance

All employees understand that we have a zero-tolerance stance against abuse from service users.  There is a common understanding of what is not acceptable and there is support if they experience such negative behaviours.

Involvement and sponsorship from Members

Cross-service working party, with representatives from services that have most interaction with public (ComSol, Public Realm, My Place).  

Working party to address:

  • The process for flagging (informal and formal)
  • Role of the manager and their capability and confidence
  • Support from other sources e.g. peers
  • Undertake, along with other London Boroughs, a pilot to assess the practical application of guidance on reducing occupational violence

Strong communications campaign

Strategic Leadership Team and Cabinet

 

 

Metric Four: Harassment, bullying or abuse – colleagues or line manager

Workshop discussion theme

Desired outcome

Actions 

Person responsible

Trust in the system

Trust in relationships

Cultural sensitivity

All employees know the channels for reporting incidents, how the policy supports them and that if they flag an issue it will be followed up and dealt with by their line manager.  There is an openness to learning how cultural differences can influence communication.

Harassment and Abuse policy updated and fully implemented and embedded (including learning opportunities re: micro-aggressions). Communication and training plan to be included, and monitoring/review

 

Managers held to account for their role in supporting via performance management

 







Cultural awareness upskilling – including sensitivity to different communication style

Director for Workforce Change

 

 

 

 



Director for Workforce Change

 

 

Director for Workforce Change