Author: Emily Cole
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Between April and July 2024, I joined the Natural Environment Strategy team at Hampshire County Council to contribute to their new Environment Strategy. As a relatively new PhD student six months into my research, this opportunity from Public Policy Southampton proved invaluable for focusing my ideas on something that could have a tangible policy impact. Now starting my second year, I am reflecting on my time in local government and the lessons learned from the three-month placement.
During my time with Hampshire, I was part of a newly formed Natural Environment team, whose role was to connect technical specialists from ecology, planning and corporate teams to create overarching environmental policy for the Council. My primary role during the placement was to understand the new environmental duties on local authorities from the Environment Act (2021) and Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (2023). To support this work, I created several tools for the Council to track whether current Hampshire policies met these requirements or needed updating to meet changing needs. For me, this was a practical way to learn about the variety of responsibilities that local authorities are required to deliver for the environment, which I probably would not have discovered outside of this environment. Additionally, and closely linked to my research, it was interesting to discover that whilst new and ambitious statutory requirements for the environment have been welcomed at the local level, there is concern that alongside other policies and budgetary constraints, these may be difficult to implement.
Alongside the general environmental work, I was tasked with supporting the development of the Council’s own biodiversity net gain (BNG) policy. This was especially interesting to me as my background working as part of the BNG at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs prior to my PhD, meant that I was yet to see how the new legislation was working at its intended level: local government. I oversaw the setting up of focus groups with technical specialists within the Council, creating visual guidance documents (adapted from the guidance I wrote at the National level!), and liaising with other local authorities on their experiences of BNG so far, as well as the links to Green Finance. This further developed my communication skills, especially taking a complex topic and explaining it to non-experts; a skill that is incredibly useful within academia when disseminating information.
When undertaking a placement, I was initially concerned about putting my studies on hold, as I was in a rhythm and felt that pausing would hold back any progress I had made. However, I am glad I took the opportunity to have three months to completely immerse myself in a new experience to learn skills and create new networks in a way that I would not have been able to within my day-to-day PhD work. I started the placement with an idea of how my work could support local level implementation of environmental targets, but left with a different perspective that has helped refine my focus. Again, this is something I potentially would not have gained without gaining work experience within this level of government. I was also able to apply existing skills from my background in national government policy making and share insights that were beneficial to the Council which created a dynamic two-way learning environment.
For anyone worried about suspending their studies to undertake a placement and the relevance it may or may not have to their research, I would recommend just going for it. Taking a step back from my studies provided me with the clarity I needed going into the second year. If I did have ideas, I jotted them down in a running document so that when I came back after the placement, I had a collection of thoughts and ideas that were waiting for me! Suspending my studies meant I could fully immerse myself in the experience. I also made sure I had a well-deserved break once the placement was complete. It was a different level of pressure, that although I was used to from my industry experience, took time to settle back into and therefore took time to unwind from again before returning to my studies. Overall, the work provided me with invaluable insights into the inner workings of local government and how challenges they are facing can impact implementation of environmental targets which I can now take forward into my research.