Introduction

The Online Recruitment Project for North East Local Authorities and Fire and Rescue Authorities is underway. Regional funding from the Improvement Partnership was secured in late March 2007, along with support from the North East Regional Centre of Excellence and North East Connects. The project aims to create a single regional recruitment portal providing a space for local authorities to advertise job vacancies. The portal will provide scope for substantial savings from the costs of advertising in local and national publications and increase accessibility for audiences for job advertisements.

Following an extensive consultation process, every local authority and Fire and Rescue Authority in the region has provided in principle support to participate in the project this year. The next twelve months will be an important test of the effectiveness of the regional approach, and the ability of the participant authorities to drive down recruitment advertising costs whilst developing an effective workforce.

Any queries should be directed to the Online Recruitment Project Manager, David Leask (Tel 0191 433 2851).