Dinah’s story
Development
Meet Dinah. She’s the Strategic Housing Division’s Business Support & Resource Officer. As part of a large team in our Development directorate, her role is quite different to when she started. It’s meant that she’s always trying new things and learning new skills. Learn more about the project that’s left the longest-lasting impression on her.
I didn’t really decide to work for Barnsley Council. I’d been made redundant in a prior job, and was looking for something to fill in while I decided what I wanted to do.I came for a rather nice six week short term contract. I’m still here five and a half years on.
I found the selection process different, because I came from 30 years in private industry. It was a little bit more document driven, and as a hint and tip to anybody, certainly of my age, make sure you’ve got your certificates from when you took your exams all those years ago, because they’re quite hard to replace, as I found.
My department is a big team. There are 40 of us, we cover a variety of different areas, but we all work together. If one team is down on people due perhaps to holidays or illness, we’ll all muck in - which has resulted in us all learning different skills all the time. But as a team we all pull together, and in the same direction.
I think one of the best things about my role is that it’s developing. We all have a job description when you start any job, but in my particular section we are encouraged to develop beyond that, to take on different things, and to have a go. So no two days are ever the same for me. There are certain things I have to do, but there are other things that come along, and it’s rather fun that I can go out to visit houses where we’re doing regeneration work or I attend meetings with councillors. I’ve been involved in some fairly big projects, all of which are way outside what I came to do originally. But, as I say, we’re all encouraged to carry on and have a go.
The council’s been very supportive of me in terms of training and development. I‘ve received virtually none in private industry. Here, at the age of 50 plus, I went to university for the first time, I’ve done three years on day release, and I’m delighted to say that I passed. But the council has encouraged me to train, not just for me, but it helps support my senior officers, because I can take some of the workload from them by writing reports and by analysing items that come in for them.
It’s a great place to be. It goes from a pleasant enough city centre to some lovely rural areas around the town, and there’s plenty to do. There’s the Lamproom Theatre, there’s the new Civic, and there are plenty of shops - good Marks and Spencer.
In 2007, Barnsley was unfortunately flooded twice in very close succession. I was asked at very short notice to set up and man the back office to support the flood recovery work. It was very, very challenging work. I think I worked an awful lot of hours in a very short time, but it was nice to think that what I was doing was making a huge difference to people in the borough who were struggling with flooded houses, unable to get around the borough and also to have lost so much. And it was really nice to make a difference.
I’d recommend Barnsley Council to work for to friends of mine because it’s flexible. I think for younger people the flexi time system is wonderful if you’ve got children, but more than that I think it’s because Barnsley cares. I know a lot of people don’t think that about councils, but as far as I’m concerned, they do.
