Working at the council

Employee benefits

Here at Sunderland City Council, we employ people in many roles, ranging from ICT experts to front line Social Workers and Environmental Services technicians. We have a role for everyone - all working towards the shared goal of making a true difference to our community.
As the winner of 'smart city' of the year, Sunderland has so much to offer, from diverse events and a vibrant city to low cost of living - it is the place for you.

Our people are our strength here at the council, and with our City Plan at the heart of our transformation, we need you to make that vision a reality.

As a colleague at Sunderland City Council you will have access to a fantastic range of benefits and discounts

Our values

We innovate, we enable and we are respectful - we are Sunderland City Council.

Competitive salaries

Sunderland Council is a Foundation Living Wage employer. We pay and reward our colleagues based on the type and level of role you do. This helps us to make sure we are treating people fairly and that we remain competitive within the public sector. Our pay scales are incremental, and you can expect to receive an annual increase until you reach the top of the scale.

Occupational sick pay, adoption / maternity and parental leave and pay available which increases with length of service.

Local Government Pension Scheme

The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is a key part of Sunderland Council's pay and reward package for employees. The key features of the scheme are highlighted on the Thinking of joining pages of the LGPS website.

As part of the Scheme you may:

• receive a tax free lump sum as well as an annual pension upon retirement
• contribute more to your pension via additional voluntary contributions
• access your pension before your Normal Pension Age
• take early payment of pension in the event that you retire on grounds of ill health

Online payslips

Payslips are accessed from an electronic payslip portal. Following a simple registration and activation process, you will have instant access to your payslips from either a council or your own device (PC, smart phone or tablet). The portal is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Discounted travel

We understand the cost of travelling to work can be expensive for you so we have a range of schemes to reduce the cost of rail, bus and metro travel and also support home and agile working practices for those roles which lend themselves to this approach.

You can save money on the cost of cycling to work using our  cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme.

We offer a discounted public transport travel pass to provide you with a reduction on the cost of travel and enabling you to spread the cost throughout the year.

All colleagues are able to apply for a car parking permit where work locations require them.

Car lease scheme

We have joined up with a partner to provide an excellent car lease scheme for employees.

This provides a cost-effective way to lease a new car via salary sacrifice or net pay. No deposit is required, and the cost is fixed for the duration of the lease. The monthly cost includes:

• insurance
• routine servicing
• road tax
• tyre replacement
• breakdown cover
• windscreen replacement cover

Childcare

The Government closed the Childcare Voucher Scheme to new entrants in 2018. New parents can find out more about the options available to them via the Government's Tax-Free Childcare Scheme website.

Affordable credit

The council works in partnership with Moneywise to provide access to affordable credit.

Civil Service Sports Council

Our employees are eligible to become members of the Civil Service Sports Council. For a small monthly fee members can receive savings on dining out, cinema tickets, sports events, gym membership, and discounts on days out.

Home and agile working

Home and agile working is possible for many roles within Sunderland City Council due to improvements in technology and smarter working. It can improve your work life balance and personal wellbeing, by offering greater flexibility of work location and time, as well as improved productivity. Work is increasingly becoming "something we do" rather than "somewhere we go".

Annual leave

The council recognises the health, safety and wellbeing benefits of annual leave, and therefore will support you to take annual leave evenly throughout the year. Full time employees with less than 5 years continuous local government service receive 26 days and those with more than 5 years continuous local government service receive 31 days (not including public bank holidays). You can also take advantage of our additional leave scheme, which enables you to request to purchase additional annual leave per leave year.

Flexible working

We believe that flexible working can promote work-life balance and improve employee well-being, performance and productivity. All employees have the right to request flexible working including job share, compressed hours, career break, annualised hours, part year/term time working and part time working.

Flexi-time

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all employees and to develop practices that support work-life balance. With no 'core time' our flexi-time scheme allows you to have an element of flexibility over your working hours. Multiple attendances at work on a single day are permitted, subject to agreement with your line manager. We believe flexi-time can help with things like avoiding busy commute times, better incorporate school pick up/drop off times, making time for the gym/hobbies and being able to respond to personal situations without the need for using up leave. As a family friendly employer, flexi-time can be invaluable.

Employee volunteering

Each employee will be given the equivalent of 3 days per year (pro rata for part-time and temporary staff) to undertake volunteering in the community, within Sunderland, supporting a member of the Sunderland VCS Alliance.

Learning and development

We want to encourage all staff to fulfil their potential so your learning and development is really important to us. We work with you to help you meet your career goals because your personal development is key to not only your own progression but that of Sunderland City Council. To ensure that you have the skills, knowledge and behaviours to thrive in your role:

• you will have a comprehensive induction programme so that you understand your place in our organisation and our values
• you will have access to on-line learning resources
• you will be supported through our effective appraisal scheme and regular one-to-one discussions where you have the opportunity to discuss your own development needs
• you will have access to work-based coaches to support you to and your team to improve your performance at work

Staff groups

 The Supporting Equality Network works in partnership with the Council to ensure a positive and inclusive working environment for all employees so that no employee is marginalised on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex (including non-binary identities and any other gender identity or expression), sexual orientation and marriage and civil partnership.

Employee wellbeing

Assisting employees in making healthy lifestyle choices is a primary aim of the organisation to help contribute to our vision of making Sunderland a healthy, vibrant and dynamic city and as such a better place to live and work.

The programme can provide you with a range of opportunities to support your health and well-being including:

• information on a range of physical activities throughout the city
• advice and support on healthy eating and improved food choices
• help on maintaining a healthy body composition
• support in stopping smoking
• advice around alcohol consumption levels
• information on managing emotional health and well-being, including stress
• guided meditation and mindfulness podcasts to help with sleep, feelings of stress and mental health
• display screen equipment (DSE) information and advice
• information on a wide range of health and wellbeing issues
• corporate membership package at leisure facilities in the city

Occupational health

Our Occupational Health Service will provide you with a comprehensive range of proactive services to support and maintain your health, safety and welfare in the workplace. We focus on preventative measures to assist employees to remain free from ill health associated with working practices by helping to prevent illness, accidents and injury, reduce stress and promote well-being and healthy lifestyles.

Support available includes pre-emplloyment health checks, health screening, health surveillance, immunisations and face to face workstation assessments depending on the risks associated with your role.  Other services include referral for clinical assessment on fitness to work, counselling and physiotherapy.

Additional benefits

There are many more benefits of working at Sunderland City Council;

• our city centre office locations offer easy access to the well-known high street shops and eateries and leisure facilities and cultural venues
• discounts are offered in some venues and for some events
• our employees qualify for local authority airport parking scheme offers
• our employees are also eligible to save on selected Microsoft products under the Workplace Discount Programme

Current vacancies

Take a look at all our job vacancies.

Can't see the job for you?  That's ok!  Simply sign up to our jobs alerts with your email address and we will let you know when a vacancy that matches your skills comes up.