At its annual wellbeing week, staff at Swale Borough Council are treated to free massages and exercise classes, among other nourishing activities. Also on offer are health tests, reflexology, stress-awareness and meditation sessions, free fruit, a healthy breakfast, book club sessions, a bake-off and anything else employees have suggested.

Staff are also supported with their mental and physical wellbeing, through training and development, volunteering opportunities and employee assistance programmes. They are committed to serving and improving the lives of its residents.

The role of the council, which covers the an area of Kent including the towns of Sittingbourne and Faversham and the Isle of Sheppey, is to find ways of promoting the borough’s economic potential, look after its natural environment and help people to improve their life chances. It sums up its overall purpose as “working together for a better borough”.

Its priorities are building the right homes in the right places and supporting quality jobs for all, investing in the environment and responding positively to global challenges. It also places importance of tackling deprivation and creating equal opportunities for everyone, as well as renewing local democracy and making the council fit for the future.

There are about 300 employees, many of whom have served the borough for a long time. What keeps people working there is the family culture in which people care about each other as much as they do about the residents.