Catherine's mission: one down four to go

Beating off competition from other local government workers across the country, Catherine has been chosen to take part in the national LG Challenge that will see her go head to head against nine other hopefuls.

Catherine, who works in Wigan Council’s HR department, will undertake five real-life challenges over the next few months to determine if she has what it takes to win this year’s competition.

Now in its eight year, the LG Challenge sees the best and brightest government officers compete in a series of real-life challenges around the country. The challenges are designed to test candidates’ leadership, creative and communicative abilities. The LG Challenge culminates in the final at the LGA Annual Conference in July, in which four finalists exhibit their own project proposals to delegates who vote for an overall winner,

Catherine, who won the first said: “The first challenge was about creating education pathways for ex-offenders, and how we engage local businesses in offering employment to both ex-offenders and other vulnerable groups.

“As part of that, we spent time in a cat. D mens prison with prisoners, time with local charities, local colleges, and training providers as well as with officers from Swale council who were involved with benefits, homelessness and things like regeneration and growth too. We don’t know until we get there what the next challenge will be.” The winner wins the £10,000 Bruce-Lockhart scholarship to spend on a project within their local area.