South Cambridgeshire council employee wins Local Government Challenge
A senior policy officer at South Cambridgeshire District Council, has been crowned winner of this year's Local Government Challenge.
After a closely fought contest which saw 10 leading lights in local government go head-to-head, Paul Knight, was announced the winner at the LG Group Annual Conference, receiving his accolade from Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
His prize is a £10,000 scholarship to spend on an innovative project to promote localism and the work of town halls.
Paul Knight said: "The experience I have gained over the last six months has been like no other. The five challenges and the final at the LG Group Annual Conference has been a fantastic opportunity for me to develop personally and professionally. The competition has been very challenging but I am determined to make the best use of the £10,000 Bruce-Lockhart Scholarship to develop myself personally and to benefit local government. The hard work starts now."
The annual LG Group competition began in January and saw the contestants take on five real-life challenges, hosted by four councils and one fire authority, designed to reflect the pressures they face in the current tough economic climate and give candidates the chance to show they have what it takes to be a top chief executive.
Challenges included putting forward suggestions for how two district councils could plan for merging their workforces, which will entail many redundancies, making Big Society ideals a reality by helping transform derelict land into community projects, and reaching out to isolated and at-risk members of society through innovative awareness-raising campaigns on a stretched budget.
Contestants, split into two teams of five, were assessed on a wide range of skills from communication and leadership to business acumen and problem solving, and needed to showcase their talent as individuals and team players.
Ten were then narrowed down to four, and the remaining candidates had to impress LG Group Conference delegates with a Question Time-style panel, before going on to pitch their plans for the prize money to the expert judges.
Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the LGA, said: "The quality and calibre of this year's finalists has been exceptional. Each of them showed a tremendous amount of enthusiasm, dedication and talent and they should all be congratulated on their efforts.
"It is vital that councils are at the forefront of innovation and continue to meet the challenge of becoming evermore efficient. This competition serves as a platform to highlight local government as an inspiring career choice and showcase the diverse array of talent and ambition within the sector."
This year all the action was captured by the Policy Review TV cameras with each challenge and the final stages available to view online at www.policyreview.tv/lgchallenge.
