He worked for Unilever in marketing research before moving into the public sector. Fifteen years' experience of management in the public services--first in the Probation Service in Manchester in the 1960s, then as director of the Home Office Community Development Project in Coventry in the 1970s, and then, in the 1980s, as director of economic development with Sheffield City Council, where he was also a member of the Chief Officers' Corporate Management Team for the local authority.

Previous academic experience includes posts in policy analysis and management at Birmingham University, visiting professor, School of Public and Development Management at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the position of academic adviser to the UK Minister of State for Local Government and to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Benington was a member of the DETR's national steering committee for the Best Value programme, and of the Cabinet Office's national steering committee for the programme of Better Government for Older People. He was a member of the advisory group for a Cabinet Office study of Leadership in Public Services, which the prime minister commissioned from the Performance and Innovation Unit.

His research interests include political leadership and the strategic management of change in the public-service sector, multilevel governance and interorganisational networking.