We aim to recruit graduates who are representative of the communities they will serve, which is why equality, diversity and inclusion are important to us.
Local government represents diverse communities across the country and our goal is to recruit graduates to Pathways to Planning who are representative of the communities they will serve. Regardless of background, anyone with a passion to make a difference in their communities can apply. We are particularly keen to encourage and support candidates who come from groups that have been typically underrepresented within planning and surveying: those who identify as Black, Asian or any ethnic group which is a minority in England and Wales, alongside women.
If your question is not answered below, or you need any further information or assistance, please contact our support team at [email protected].
What action have we taken to support candidates from diverse communities?
The Pathways to Planning team believes that the best way to recruit a diverse group of graduates is to involve a diverse range of individuals within the development of its recruitment and assessment process.
We strongly encourage applicants who require reasonable adjustments to please complete the relevant section of their application form under the section ‘equal opportunities’. A member of our support team will then get in touch to discuss how we can support you in the application process.
We cannot make retrospective adjustments to your assessments or scoring, so we strongly encourage candidates to get in touch before starting an assessment if we can make any adjustments to support you. Information about candidates is held confidentially and will not impact their application in any way outside of our team making reasonable adjustments.
Accessibility
If you have a disability, have received reasonable adjustments for a test/exam process in the past or believe that you are in need of reasonable adjustments in future, please get in touch with our team as far in advance as possible. We will have an individual conversation about how we can support you and make adaptations as needed so you have fair and equal access to the Pathways to Planning application process.
We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including candidates with disabilities. We are committed to supporting candidates with a disability who need additional support or adjustments, and we have designed the recruitment process to be as accessible as possible.
Competencies
To embed diversity in the heart of Pathways to Planning, we’ve designed the core assessment criteria – our competencies – in collaboration with the Young Planners Network and the BAME Planners Network, with a good gender balance between representatives. We have also had input from professionals with disabilities and have encouraged participation from individuals with diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The competencies were refreshed in 2025 to accommodate the programme’s expansion into recruiting surveyors.
The finished competencies can be found on our website, with written descriptions for each heading. They are the only assessment tool that we will use in our recruitment process. We will not be using candidates’ work experience, university of study, degree subject or any other measure to influence the application process.
These competencies are periodically reviewed to ensure they accurately reflect the programme and what is expected of candidates.
Situational judgement test
The situational judgement test is not timed, is done online, and is compatible with screen readers, but if any candidates require the test in a different format or have an accessibility concern about this assessment, our team are available to offer advice and provide any required alternatives. Email [email protected].
Video interview
The video interview is a timed assessment, so we strongly encourage candidates with reasonable adjustments to get in touch with us at the earliest possible opportunity to ensure they are given extra time to complete this assessment. We provide extra time to read the questions, extra time to respond to the questions, and an additional opportunity to re-record your answer for all candidates who require reasonable adjustments. You will also be able to exit our platform and take breaks between each video interview question if you would prefer not to record all your answers in one sitting. You can declare reasonable adjustments on your application form or email [email protected] at any point prior to the deadline for your interview. Please get in touch before you start the assessment as we will not be able to provide additional time or adapted scoring in retrospect.
Video interviews will be marked by professional assessors as audio files only, to help remove unconscious bias from the process. Our team cross-mark some of the video interviews alongside professional assessors to ensure the correct marking standard is used. Before setting the pass/fail score for this assessment, our team will also closely analyse anonymised EDI data to check for any adverse impact against each protected characteristic.
If you have concerns about the accessibility of the video interview, please contact [email protected] and we will arrange an alternative mode of delivery for this assessment based on your requirements.
We provide coaching to candidates from underrepresented groups in advance of their video interviews. Candidates who progress to video interview stage will be offered the chance to sign up for coaching support and should look out for this in their invitation emails. Individuals are encouraged to self-identify when accessing coaching.
Assessment centre
Our assessment centre materials are designed by an external company of occupational psychologists in collaboration with a diverse range of industry experts.
We strongly encourage any candidates who have additional requirements to get in touch with our team before their assessment centre date to ensure we provide extra time and support as needed. You can declare reasonable adjustments on your application form or email [email protected] at any point prior to your assessment centre date. Typically, we can provide advance access to assessment briefings, extra time to read materials, and extra time to complete exercises, alongside any alternative formats required. There will also be comfort breaks built into all candidates’ assessment centre schedules.
Please get in touch before the date of your assessment centre as we will not be able to provide additional time or adapted scoring in retrospect.
We provide coaching to candidates from underrepresented groups in advance of their assessment centre. Candidates who progress to assessment centre stage will be offered the chance to sign up for coaching support and should look out for this in their invitation emails. Individuals are encouraged to self-identify when accessing coaching.
Interviews
While councils will be responsible for the structure and format of their interviews, we will provide councils with best practice guidance. Councils will provide feedback on request following the interview process. We will not automatically pass any information about additional requirements to councils as this is held confidentially within the Pathways to Planning application process.
We strongly encourage candidates with additional requirements to share these with councils in advance of their interviews so they can receive appropriate support. If candidates would like the Pathways to Planning team to relay their adjustment requirements to a council on their behalf, they must contact [email protected] with the exact wording they would like us to share alongside written consent to share this information with the interviewing body. Councils are diverse employers who seek to employ graduates as diverse as the communities they serve.
We provide coaching to candidates from underrepresented groups in advance of their council interview(s). Candidates who progress to council interview stage will be offered the chance to sign up for coaching support and should look out for this in their invitation emails. Individuals are encouraged to self-identify when accessing coaching.
Your data
Pathways to Planning is managed by the Local Government Association on behalf of councils. We collect data on candidates’ protected characteristics during the recruitment process and monitor adverse impact at every stage, however, this data is always anonymised.
Information about your disability will not be passed on to councils without your permission, including whether or not you have had adjustments in the assessment process.
We ask candidates to declare their disability or any adjustments needed in the application form, but you can also contact our team to speak confidentially about the support or adjustments we can provide.
You can contact our team via email at [email protected] .
The Pathways team is made up of a number of Local Government Association employees, some of whom are CIPD accredited HR professionals.
Data collection and monitoring
We collect data on our candidates’ protected characteristics during the recruitment process and monitor impact at every stage. This data is always anonymised and is used to create an overall picture of candidates progressing through our recruitment stages, and once we have recruited a final cohort. This data is also used as a comparison with previous recruitment cycles, so we can continuously monitor the make-up of each cohort, as well as monitoring areas of improvement for future. Our policy is to delete personal application data after two years (two years from the application closing date).