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Event

Local Authority Insight Series: Monitoring Officers
Title:
Local Authority Insight Series: Monitoring Officers
When:
Wed, 30 November 2022, 12:00 - 13:00
Where:
Online (live webinar)
Category:
Management

Description

Everything you wanted to know about being a monitoring officer but were afraid to ask

Numerous recent examples of governance failures at local authorities have underlined the fact that the job of the monitoring officer is getting harder and with further budget cuts on the horizon, is likely to becoming more challenging still.

Join two of the profession’s most experienced MOs as they look at how the nature and the profile role is changing based on their extensive experience in a range of roles and organisations.

Contents:

  • The history of and background to the monitoring officer role and how it has evolved.
  • What skills are required to perform the role effectively? How important is a legal qualification for undertaking the role?
  • What are the rewards of taking the MO role?
  • The role of the council’s constitution in the MO’s role.
  • The future of the monitoring officer. To what extent will the MO’s role move toward that of commercial general counsel and which elements will remain unique to local government?
  • As the role changes, what new skills will be required and which ‘old’ ones will remain relevant?

Speakers

Philip McCourt

Philip has recently joined Bevan Brittan LLP to provide advice on local authority governance and monitoring officer issues. He is a chartered secretary as well as a solicitor by training, having joined local government in 1988, first becoming a monitoring officer and member of a council’s corporate leadership team in 2000 and president of what is now LLG for 2011-13. He has worked in and for a number of local authorities, including secondment to the Local Government Association (IDeA), and was latterly the monitoring officer for Wirral MBC as Director of Law and Governance between 2017 and September 2022.

Philip has been involved in a number of support projects for local authority monitoring officers. He was seconded to develop, deliver and accredit training materials making up the Ethical Governance Toolkit, driven partly out of his experiences assisting authorities with issues over governance and behaviours. Philip led the drafting and revision of the Model Planning Code for Members, the example Code for the Governance of Council Interests in Companies and has contributed to a number of other advisory materials for both LLG and ADSO.

Philip is an editorial consultant and author on local authority governance for LexisNexis PSL. He is also the current author of Knowles on Local Authority Meetings and is an examiner for the Law Society’s Diploma in Local Government Law and Practice.

Suki Binjal

Suki Binjal is a highly experienced public sector solicitor providing legal and strategic advice to local authorities and other public bodies and is currently interim monitoring officer at Northumberland County Council.

Her previous roles have included as the director of legal, corporate governance and HR at the London Borough of Lewisham and a directorship with the Commission for Racial Equality.

She was also an external advisor on the policy committee with the Solicitors Regulation Authority for eight years and sits on the Law Society Council representing Lawyers in Local Government.

Suki is also an advisory Board member of Thomson Reuters Transforming Women’s Leadership in the Law and the Chair of the LGA’s fighting fraud and corruption locally and was a founder member of a women's refuge and chaired the Portsmouth Equalities Forum, as well as holding various non-executive director roles.

She was the president of Lawyers in Local Government from 2017 to 2019, a national membership body representing public sector lawyers.

Suki routinely speaks at events and training sessions. Her focus is to champion the role of lawyers in the public sector and to promote positive engagement across the broad spectrums of local authority governance and leadership. She is passionate about excellent public services, motivated to achieve results by being transparent and inclusive, encouraging values that enhance social responsibility and accountability to the public purse.

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Venue

Location:
Online (live webinar)
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