Built for local government
✓
Buy through G-Cloud, without a full tender
✓
WCAG 2.2 AA candidate experience, independently assessed by Shaw Trust
✓
Board, KPI and ED&I reporting with the Advanced Insights Report Builder
✓
UK data hosting on Microsoft Azure, Cyber Essentials certified
✓
Group licensing for shared services and reorganisation
Watch the overview
Jobtrain for local government in a few minutes
See how councils use Jobtrain to attract more of the right people, shortlist fairly, run pre-employment checks online and report to members, all from one platform.
Client voices
What councils tell us
“
When you sign up for an ATS with Jobtrain you don’t just get a great system, you also get the wrap-around support of a great team.
Diana Read, People Operations Service & Recruitment Manager, St Helens Borough Council
“
Efficiency for the organisation and accessibility and convenience for the candidate.
Dave Yates, Head of Digital and Information, Douglas City Council
“
It has been nothing short of outstanding.
Ste Rigby, Operations Manager, People Management and OD, St Helens Borough Council
“
It’s a partnership, hence why we’re still here 10 years down the line!
Stephanie Allison, Personnel Officer, Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Client spotlight
St Helens Borough Council: a year of transformation
St Helens Borough Council employs more than 3,000 people. In February 2025 it replaced manual, paper-based recruitment with Jobtrain. Within the first year the council moved to data-driven hiring, reduced administrative workload, improved the candidate experience and gave hiring managers across leisure, children’s social care, schools and supported living the tools to recruit for themselves.
The team now uses silver medallist talent pools to keep strong candidates for future posts, including hard-to-fill roles, and uses time-by-stage reporting to find and fix bottlenecks.
“The Jobtrain ATS platform is at the heart of our recruitment modernisation journey at St Helens Council. Launched in February 2025 we are already seeing fantastic results. The relationship between St Helens and Jobtrain is a true partnership.”
Diana Read, People Operations Service & Recruitment Manager, St Helens Borough Council
Watch: the St Helens team and their hiring managers on how recruitment has changed since moving to Jobtrain.
St Helens, 12 months on
40+
applications for an admin vacancy that previously drew fewer than 7
1 to 2 weeks
from application to interview, down from months
6 to 8 weeks
target to appoint to roles needing a DBS check, down from four to six months
26
appointments from a single Go Active leisure campaign, nominated for an innovation award
Client spotlight
Isle of Man Government: a partnership since 2014
The Isle of Man Government is the island’s largest employer, with around 11,500 people across roles from doctors and teachers to police officers and bus drivers. Jobtrain manages all of it, with tailored application, interview and onboarding processes for each type of role.
It was one of the first clients to move DBS checks online in Jobtrain, cutting a paper process with postal delays down to two clicks. Implementation took 12 weeks with a phased rollout, and the government re-awarded us its contract by tender in 2021.
“The functionality, the forward-thinking, the User Interface, the customer experience.”
Isle of Man Government
Isle of Man Government in numbers
28 days
saved on every enhanced DBS check, down from 38 to 10 working days
100%
of candidates rated the application process good or outstanding
12 weeks
from project start to go-live, with a phased rollout
Since 2014
and re-awarded by tender in 2021
More results
Results from councils like yours
Douglas City Council
Same-day approvals
Paper forms and physical sign-offs replaced with online approvals, so a role can be signed off and advertised on the same day. The council also reports more applications from a broader pool.
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Fewer no-shows
A two-person recruitment team uses self-service interview booking so candidates book, cancel and rebook themselves. A client since 2013.
greater.jobs Group
One shared platform
Local authorities and public services across Greater Manchester and Blackpool advertise their vacancies together through one Jobtrain platform, with schools able to add their own branding.
Hard-to-fill roles
Filling hard-to-recruit council posts
94% of councils responding to the LGA workforce survey report recruitment and retention difficulties, with social workers, planners, legal, environmental health and digital roles among the hardest to fill. Every post you fill directly is one less paid to an agency.
Silver medallist talent pools
Keep strong candidates who narrowly missed out and offer them the next suitable role, as St Helens does for hard-to-fill posts.
Search and Match
Search your existing candidate database and LinkedIn by meaning, not just keywords, as soon as a vacancy is created.
Reach where candidates look
Free advertising on Indeed, LinkedIn, Google for Jobs, Adzuna, Talent.com and ZipRecruiter, plus the Job Board Marketplace for niche boards.
One-click applications
Candidates can apply through Indeed, Reed, Totaljobs and CV Library, or apply without creating an account.
Attract
Accessible council careers sites and job advertising
Councils have a duty to reach every part of their community. Your careers site should remove barriers, not add them.
WCAG 2.2 AA, independently tested
Shaw Trust spends more than 60 hours testing the candidate experience with users who have mobility, sight, hearing and learning impairments.
Accessibility toolbar
Built-in Recite Me toolbar lets candidates change font size and contrast, hear pages read aloud and translate into 90 languages.
Disability Confident support
Track Disability Confident applications and flag candidates with access requirements, disabilities or veteran status.
Careers sites you manage
Branded portals for each service, school or partner body, with images and video you update yourselves.
Assess
Fair, defensible shortlisting for public sector roles
Every hiring decision in the public sector may need to stand up to scrutiny. Jobtrain keeps assessment consistent and every step recorded.
Two-stage applications
Collect only what you need at first, so more candidates finish. See how the Isle of Man Government does it
Panel and anonymous shortlisting
Panel members score independently before seeing combined results, with names and identifying details hidden at screening.
Scored and timed assessments
Mix killer questions, scored forms and timed questions, with optional automatic pass and fail rules for high volumes.
Self-service interviews
Candidates book, cancel and rebook their own slots, and Microsoft Teams interviews are scheduled from inside Jobtrain.
Approve and comply
Vacancy approval and pre-employment checks
Establishment control, safer recruitment and right to work checks all need a clear audit trail. Jobtrain keeps it in one place.
Approve from an email
Managers approve vacancies from a link in an email, without logging in, with unlimited approval routes by department or cost centre.
Online DBS checks
DBS checks run through First Advantage from inside Jobtrain, with Disclosure Scotland checks supported for Scottish hiring.
Right to work and ID
Digital right to work and identity checks through TrustID, tracked on one compliance dashboard.
Full audit trail
Every status change, approval and decision is time stamped and recorded against the candidate and the vacancy.
Onboard
Keep new starters engaged until day one
Losing a new hire between offer and start date costs time and money, and often means paying for agency cover.
Welcome Hub
A branded onboarding portal with team information, video and culture content before day one.
Offers, contracts and references
Candidates review and e-sign documents in their own portal, with references taken before or after offer.
HR and payroll integration
We have extensive experience integrating with iTrent, used by many councils, as well as MHR, SAP, Oracle and Workday.
Hiring managers on the move
JT Mobile lets frontline managers review, shortlist and progress candidates from a phone.
Report
Recruitment reporting for members, Boards and ED&I
Councils are asked to report on recruitment more than most organisations. Jobtrain gives you the numbers without the spreadsheets.
Insights dashboards
Time to approve and hire, recruitment funnel, diversity, advert source and bottleneck reports on every user’s home screen.
Advanced Insights Report Builder
Six ready-made dashboards and 27 reports covering efficiency, engagement and ED&I, plus your own custom reports.
Scheduled reports
Send Board, KPI and ED&I reports automatically in CSV, Word, PDF or Excel, as often as you need them.
Talent Intelligence team
Every client gets our in-house Talent Intelligence team for sector benchmarks, ED&I audits and advice.
Redeploy
Redeployment software for council restructures
Restructures and service changes are part of council life. The Redeployment Portal helps you look after the people affected and keep their experience.
Early, prioritised access
At-risk employees see suitable internal vacancies before you advertise externally.
Smart job matching
Match people to roles and send tailored updates through a dedicated portal.
Live caseload dashboard
Redeployment managers track applications and outcomes, with a clear record of every decision.
Reorganisation
Ready for local government reorganisation
Reorganisation can bring new unitary authorities, shared services and partner bodies together. Your recruitment platform should make that easier, not harder.
Group licensing
One agreement can cover several organisations, so you can add councils and services without disproportionate licence costs.
Unlimited users
Bring in new teams, hiring managers and HR staff with no extra user costs.
Separate or shared brands
Give each organisation its own branded careers portal or bring them together in one multi-brand portal.
Configured for each part
Each council or service can keep its own workflows, forms, approvals and security roles on one platform.
Buy and implement
Buying through G-Cloud: price, trial and support
Procurement should not be the hardest part of changing your ATS. Jobtrain is listed on G-Cloud, so councils and public bodies can buy without running a full tender.
G-Cloud listed
Buy through the G-Cloud framework, Lot 2 Cloud software. See our G-Cloud listing
Transparent pricing
Our G-Cloud listing shows licences from £8,500 to £100,000 a year, depending on size and modules. Unlimited users, jobs and candidates are included.
Try it first
After a discovery call we can give your team a sandbox environment to test Jobtrain before you sign.
Implementation and support
Most councils go live within three to six months. You get a dedicated implementation lead, a named consultant afterwards and unlimited UK-based support.
Security and social value
Security and social value you can evidence
Information governance and social value both carry real weight in public sector evaluations.
UK hosting
Data is stored only in the UK, on Microsoft Azure, which is ISO 27001 certified. Data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2 or above.
Tested and vetted
Annual IT health check by a CREST or Tigerscheme approved provider. Staff are vetted to BS7858, with clearance up to Developed Vetting available.
Availability
We target 99.9% service availability, with service credits written into our G-Cloud terms.
Social value
Real Living Wage employer and Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter supporter. We give 1% of our licence fees to the Jobtrain Foundation.
Integrations
Works with the systems councils already use
iTrent
Extensive experience integrating with the HR system many councils use.
MHR, SAP, Oracle, Workday
New starter data sent without rekeying.
TrustID
Right to work and identity checks.
First Advantage
Online DBS and background checks.
Microsoft Teams
Video interviews scheduled from Jobtrain.
Indeed, Reed, Totaljobs
One-click apply and direct posting.
Broadbean and Idibu
Multi-posting to any job board.
Open API
RESTful API with a sandbox for your own systems.
