Guides to public sector jobs
Straight answers on what the jobs involve, what they pay, how to apply and what you are entitled to once you are in.
Job profiles
- Accountancy jobs in local government
- Administrative officer (AO) in the Civil Service
- Adult social worker
- Advanced clinical practitioner
- Analyst jobs in government
- Becoming a modern foreign languages teacher
- Becoming a special constable
- Becoming an NHS consultant
- Biomedical scientist
- Border Force officer
- Building control surveyor
- Care coordinator (primary care and mental health)
- Careers adviser in schools and colleges
- Civil enforcement officer (parking)
- Clinical coder
- Commercial and procurement jobs in government
- Community safety officer
- Council customer service adviser
- Council licensing officer
- Court usher and HMCTS jobs
- Cover supervisor jobs explained
- Democratic services and committee officer
- Deputy and assistant headteacher roles
- Design and technology technician in schools
- Designated safeguarding lead (DSL)
- Diagnostic radiographer
- Dietitian jobs in the NHS
- Digital and technology jobs in government (DDaT)
- District nurse
- DWP work coach
- Early help practitioner
- Early years practitioner jobs
- Economic development officer
- Emergency care assistant and ambulance technician
- Environmental health officer
- Exam invigilator jobs
- Exams officer in a secondary school
- Executive officer (EO) in the Civil Service
- Family support worker
- Finance jobs in the NHS
- Fire control operator
- Further education lecturer jobs
- Government Legal Profession
- GP receptionist jobs
- Grounds maintenance and council gardener jobs
- Head of department: what the job involves
- Head of year or pastoral lead
- Healthcare assistant (HCA) jobs in the NHS
- HEO and SEO roles in the Civil Service
- Highways inspector
- HM Coastguard jobs
- HMRC customer service adviser
- Home care worker jobs
- Homelessness and housing options officer
- Hospital domestic and housekeeping jobs
- Hospital pharmacist careers
- Hospital porter jobs
- Housing officer
- How to become a children's nurse
- How to become a children's social worker
- How to become a clinical psychologist
- How to become a computing teacher
- How to become a dental nurse
- How to become a detective
- How to become a firefighter
- How to become a GP
- How to become a headteacher
- How to become a health visitor
- How to become a maths teacher
- How to become a midwife
- How to become a paramedic
- How to become a PE teacher
- How to become a phlebotomist
- How to become a planning officer
- How to become a police constable
- How to become a policy adviser in government
- How to become a primary school teacher
- How to become a prison officer
- How to become a probation officer
- How to become a science teacher
- How to become a secondary school teacher
- How to become a SENCO
- How to become a sonographer
- How to become a teaching assistant
- How to become a youth worker
- How to become an adult nurse in the NHS
- How to become an art and design teacher
- How to become an educational psychologist
- How to become an English teacher
- How to become an NHS physiotherapist
- HR jobs in the NHS
- Immigration enforcement and immigration officer roles
- IT and digital jobs in the NHS
- Jobs in Jobcentre Plus
- Joining the British Army as a soldier
- Joining the RAF
- Joining the Royal Navy
- Learning disability nursing
- Learning mentor: role, pay and skills
- Legal adviser in the magistrates' court
- Leisure centre lifeguard jobs
- Library assistant jobs
- Lunchtime supervisor (midday meals supervisor)
- Medical records and health records jobs
- Medical secretary in the NHS
- Mental health nurse: training and jobs
- Mental health support worker
- MOD civilian jobs
- Music teacher jobs in schools
- NHS 111 and 999 call handler jobs
- NHS admin jobs: bands 2 to 4 explained
- NHS catering jobs
- NHS estates and maintenance jobs
- NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme
- Nursing associate: the bridge between HCA and nurse
- Occupational therapist jobs
- Occupational therapy assistant
- Operating department practitioner (ODP)
- Pastoral manager and pastoral support worker
- Peer support worker
- Pharmacy technician
- Physician associate
- Podiatrist
- Police call handler and control room jobs
- Police community support officer (PCSO)
- Project and programme manager jobs in the NHS
- Psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP)
- Refuse collector and HGV driver jobs
- Registrar of births, deaths and marriages
- Resident doctors (formerly junior doctors) explained
- Residential care worker
- Revenues and benefits officer
- School attendance officer
- School business manager
- School cleaner jobs
- School cook and kitchen assistant jobs
- School crossing patrol jobs
- School data manager
- School IT technician
- School librarian and learning resource centre jobs
- School nurse jobs
- School office administrator jobs
- School receptionist: what the job is really like
- School science technician
- School site manager and caretaker jobs
- SEN teaching assistant: the job and how to get it
- SEND caseworker (EHCP coordinator)
- Social prescribing link worker
- Speech and language therapist
- Sterile services technician
- Street cleansing operative
- Supply teaching explained
- Teaching in a special school
- The Civil Service Fast Stream
- Theatre support worker
- Therapeutic radiographer
- Trading standards officer
- Ward clerk and ward administrator
- Waste and recycling officer
- What does an HLTA do?
- Working for the DVLA in Swansea
Pay scales
- Armed forces pay
- Civil Service grades and pay
- Converting hourly pay to an annual salary
- Doctors' pay in the NHS
- Firefighter pay
- FTE salary vs actual salary
- How pay progression works in the NHS
- How term-time-only pay is calculated
- How to read the salary on a public sector job advert
- Local government pay award 2026/27
- London weighting across the public sector
- Market supplements and recruitment premiums
- National Living Wage and minimum wage rates 2026
- NHS Agenda for Change pay bands 2026/27
- NHS band 2 pay and jobs
- NHS band 3 pay and jobs
- NHS band 4 pay and jobs
- NHS band 5 pay and jobs
- NHS band 6 pay and jobs
- NHS band 7 pay and jobs
- NHS band 8a pay and jobs
- NHS band 9
- NHS bands 8b, 8c and 8d
- NHS London weighting (high cost area supplement)
- NHS pay award 2026/27: what we know
- NJC pay spine for council and school support staff 2026/27
- Nurse pay in the UK
- Paramedic pay
- Police pay scales
- Public sector vs private sector pay
- School leadership pay range
- SEN allowance for teachers
- Social worker pay
- Spine points explained
- Teacher pay award 2026/27
- Teacher pay in London and the fringe
- Teacher pay in Northern Ireland
- Teacher pay in Scotland
- Teacher pay scales in England 2026/27
- Teaching assistant pay explained
- The Real Living Wage vs the National Living Wage
- TLR payments for teachers
- Unqualified teacher pay
- What pro rata salary means
Applying and interviews
- Access to HE diplomas for nursing and healthcare
- Acting up and honoraria
- Agency work vs bank work
- Applying for public sector jobs with a criminal record
- Apprenticeships in the public sector
- Asking for feedback after a rejection
- Asking for reasonable adjustments in recruitment
- Assessment centres
- Changing career into nursing
- Changing career into teaching
- Civil Service apprenticeships
- Civil Service behaviours and how to write examples
- Civil Service online tests
- Civil Service personal statement
- Civil Service Success Profiles explained
- Competency-based interviews
- Conditional job offers
- Cover letters for public sector jobs
- DBS checks: basic, standard and enhanced
- Disability Confident and guaranteed interviews
- Explaining employment gaps on an application
- Fast-track routes into social work
- Fixed-term contracts in the public sector
- Health and Care Worker visa
- Hospital work experience
- How long does a DBS check take?
- How long NHS recruitment takes
- How shortlisting works in the public sector
- How to get a council job
- How to get a job in a school with no experience
- How to get into the Civil Service
- How to read a job description and person specification
- How to use Civil Service Jobs
- How to use the NHS Jobs website
- How to write an NHS supporting statement
- Internal vs external vacancies
- Mandatory training in new public sector jobs
- National Graduate Development Programme (local government)
- Negotiating starting salary in the public sector
- NHS apprenticeships
- NHS bank work
- NHS jobs you can get without a degree
- NHS values-based interviews
- Nursing interview questions
- Occupational health checks
- Panel interviews
- Police Now
- Pre-employment checks
- Preparing a presentation for an interview
- Probation periods in public sector jobs
- Public sector graduate schemes compared
- Questions to ask at the end of an interview
- References in public sector recruitment
- Returning to nursing
- Right to work checks
- Safer recruitment in schools
- Secondments explained
- Situational judgement tests
- Strength-based interviews
- Teach First
- Teaching assistant interview questions
- Teaching in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa
- Teaching interview day: what to expect
- The DBS Update Service
- The STAR method for public sector applications
- Using Teaching Vacancies to find school jobs
- Video interviews
- Volunteering to get experience for public sector jobs
- Where councils advertise jobs
- Working as a nurse in the UK with an overseas qualification
- Writing a CV for public sector jobs
- Writing a teacher application statement
Tax and take-home pay
- Blind Person's Allowance
- BR tax code
- Child Benefit rates and claiming
- Claiming a tax refund
- Dividends tax for employees with shares
- Do employees need to do Self Assessment?
- Emergency tax codes
- Employer National Insurance
- Getting a National Insurance number
- Gross vs net salary
- High Income Child Benefit Charge
- HMRC personal tax account
- Holiday pay and tax
- How bonuses are taxed
- How income tax works in the UK
- How much of a pay rise do you actually keep?
- How to check your tax code
- How to read your payslip
- Is overtime taxed more?
- Is redundancy pay taxed?
- K tax codes
- Marriage Allowance
- Mileage allowance and tax relief
- Moving to or from Scotland: what happens to your tax
- National Insurance category letters
- National Insurance explained
- P45, P60 and P11D explained
- Payroll giving
- Pension tax relief: net pay vs relief at source
- Postgraduate loan repayments
- Salary sacrifice schemes
- Scottish S tax codes and rates
- Student loan Plan 1 repayments
- Student loan Plan 2 repayments
- Student loan Plan 4 (Scotland)
- Student loan Plan 5
- Student loan repayments from salary
- Take-home pay explained
- Take-home pay for a newly qualified teacher
- Take-home pay for a teaching assistant
- Take-home pay for an NHS band 5 nurse
- Take-home pay for part-time workers
- Take-home pay on the National Living Wage
- Tax codes explained
- Tax on NHS bank shifts
- Tax on savings interest
- Tax relief on professional fees and union subscriptions
- Tax when you have two jobs
- Tax-Free Childcare
- The £100,000 tax trap
- The personal allowance explained
- UK tax year dates
- Underpaid tax and tax code adjustments
- Uniform tax relief for nurses and other workers
- Universal Credit while working
- Welsh C tax codes
- Working from home tax relief
Rights at work
- ACAS early conciliation
- Access to Work grants
- Adoption leave and pay
- Agency workers' rights
- Bereavement and compassionate leave
- Bullying at work
- Carer's leave
- Continuous service in the public sector
- Deductions from wages
- Disciplinary procedures
- Discrimination at work
- Do you get bank holidays off?
- Employment Rights Act 2025: what's changing and when
- Employment tribunal time limits
- Fire and rehire
- Fit notes
- Fixed-term employees' rights
- Flexible working requests
- Health and safety rights
- Holiday entitlement for part-time workers
- Holiday entitlement in the UK
- How to resign properly
- Jury service and work
- Lone working
- Maternity leave and pay
- Menopause at work
- Neonatal care leave and pay
- NHS maternity pay
- NHS sick pay
- Night work rules
- Notice periods
- Part-time workers' rights
- Paternity leave and pay
- Raising a grievance
- Reasonable adjustments at work
- Redundancy rights
- Rest breaks and working time
- Right to switch off
- Rights while pregnant at work
- Salary overpayments
- Shared parental leave
- Sick pay for council staff
- Statutory Sick Pay
- Strikes and industrial action
- Teacher resignation deadlines
- Teachers' maternity pay
- Teachers' sick pay
- Time off for dependants
- Trade unions in the public sector
- TUPE: when your employer changes
- Unpaid parental leave
- Violence and aggression against NHS staff
- Whistleblowing in the public sector
- Your employment contract
- Your right to a payslip
- Your rights about references
- Zero-hours contracts
Pensions and benefits
- Benefits of working for a council
- Benefits of working in a school
- Blue Light Card and discounts for public sector staff
- Buying added pension
- Childcare help for public sector workers
- Civil Service benefits
- Civil Service pension (alpha)
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee assistance programmes
- Essential car user allowance
- Funded childcare hours in England
- Ill-health retirement
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- NHS Pension Scheme explained
- NHS staff benefits
- Opting out of a public sector pension
- Pension annual allowance
- Public sector pensions for part-time staff
- Retiring early from a public sector scheme
- Salary sacrifice car schemes
- Season ticket loans
- Staff wellbeing support in the NHS
- State pension age
- Teachers' Pension Scheme explained
- The McCloud remedy
- The State Pension
- Transferring a public sector pension
- Workplace pension auto-enrolment
Working life
- Burnout in public sector jobs
- Career progression in the NHS
- Changing career into the public sector
- Charities and the public sector
- Civil Service departments and agencies
- Continuing professional development
- CQC inspections
- Early career teacher induction
- Flexible working in the public sector
- From healthcare assistant to nurse
- HCPC registration
- Health services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- How councils are organised
- How secure are public sector jobs?
- How the NHS in England is organised
- How to get HLTA status
- Integrated care boards
- Job sharing
- Leaving teaching
- Leaving the NHS
- Locum work
- Mentoring and induction for new staff
- Moving between NHS trusts
- Moving schools as a teacher
- Multi-academy trusts
- National professional qualifications (NPQs)
- NHS shift patterns
- NHS trusts and foundation trusts
- NMC revalidation
- Nursing degree apprenticeship
- Ofsted inspections from a staff perspective
- Public sector jobs in Northern Ireland
- Public sector jobs in Scotland
- Public sector jobs in Wales
- Returning to work after a career break
- Starting a public sector job later in life
- Supervision in social work
- Teacher training bursaries and scholarships
- Teacher training routes in England
- Teacher workload
- The NHS Staff Survey
- Welsh language skills in public sector jobs
- What is QTS?
- Working 12-hour shifts
- Working in an academy vs a maintained school
- Working nights
- Working term-time only
- Your first week in a public sector job
Jobs by place
- Public sector jobs in Aberdeen
- Public sector jobs in Belfast
- Public sector jobs in Birmingham
- Public sector jobs in Bournemouth
- Public sector jobs in Bradford
- Public sector jobs in Brighton and Hove
- Public sector jobs in Bristol
- Public sector jobs in Cambridge
- Public sector jobs in Cardiff
- Public sector jobs in Coventry
- Public sector jobs in Derby
- Public sector jobs in Dundee
- Public sector jobs in Edinburgh
- Public sector jobs in Exeter
- Public sector jobs in Glasgow
- Public sector jobs in Gloucester
- Public sector jobs in Hull
- Public sector jobs in Leeds
- Public sector jobs in Leicester
- Public sector jobs in Lincoln
- Public sector jobs in Liverpool
- Public sector jobs in London
- Public sector jobs in Luton
- Public sector jobs in Manchester
- Public sector jobs in Middlesbrough
- Public sector jobs in Milton Keynes
- Public sector jobs in Newcastle upon Tyne
- Public sector jobs in Newport
- Public sector jobs in Northampton
- Public sector jobs in Norwich
- Public sector jobs in Nottingham
- Public sector jobs in Oxford
- Public sector jobs in Peterborough
- Public sector jobs in Plymouth
- Public sector jobs in Portsmouth
- Public sector jobs in Preston
- Public sector jobs in Reading
- Public sector jobs in Sheffield
- Public sector jobs in Southampton
- Public sector jobs in Stoke-on-Trent
- Public sector jobs in Sunderland
- Public sector jobs in Swansea
- Public sector jobs in Wolverhampton
- Public sector jobs in York