The Monitoring Officer as Chief Governance Officer
It is time to rename the role of monitoring officer to reflect better what it entails, writes Paul Feild.
Last month’s Municipal Journal carried a feature by Ben Cox[i] a Director for public sector executive recruitment consultant for Penna. Penna is in the business of advising on recruitment and selection for managers and leadership candidates in the public sector and would for many be named as the market leader.
The article is about the Monitoring Officer (MO) and the difficulty in filling vacant posts.
It seems there is a problem with recruiting people to the role of MO. Ben says:
“2022 saw unprecedentedly high levels of vacancies for Monitoring Officers (MO) and Deputy Monitoring Officers (DMO), with 58 MO roles being advertised -–more than the previous three years combined.”
He spoke to some experts who had been or are MOs. There is a video too on Penna’s site. A number of agreed problematic points arose and not least was the title of MO itself.
So, just what does the title MO mean?
We go to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to sections 5 and 5A. But it does not make clear where in the organisation the MO is.
With the Chief Finance Officer, we know that section 151 Local Government Act 1972 says that local authorities shall make arrangements for the proper administration of their financial affairs and appoint an officer as its Chief Finance Officer (CFO), (S151 Officer), to have responsibility for those arrangements and they should be professionally qualified (see Local Government Finance Act 1988 s.113).
Things are less clear regarding the Chief Executive, though common sense can help us. His Majesty’s Government website[ii] observes: “It is the role of the Chief Executive, also known as the Head of Paid Service, to ensure that all the authority’s functions are properly co-ordinated as well as organising staff and appointing appropriate management”. See Local Government and Housing Act 1989 section 4.
HMG further describes the role of the MO as to report on matters they believe to be illegal or amount to maladministration, to be responsible for matters relating to the conduct of councillors and officers and to be responsible for the operation of the council’s constitution. It adds they are often, but not always, the head of legal services in a local authority.
So, while the CFO must be qualified in the practice of finance, it seems anyone can be Chief Executive or the MO. We know that the Finance Chief is in charge of finance, and by definition, the Head of the Paid Service is likely to be at the top of the pay and command apex.
The comments made in the Penna video lead to the conclusion that nobody unless versed in the arcane world of local government officer management would have a clue what the title of ‘Monitoring Officer’ means, indeed you might guess it is about looking out for something.
The Cambridge dictionary definition for monitoring is to: “watch and check a situation carefully for period of time in order to discover something about it’.
Well, that’s not what I think we understand an MO’s role is about. Let’s use a medical analogy, if a patient was hooked up to a Vital Signs Patient Monitor [iii] any deviation outside the safety margin would demand instant intervention on peril of them suffering serious harm or death. So, in that context it requires intervention by doing something to assist the patient and doing it urgently. That’s what the MO needs to be about, they need to be ready to step in and resuscitate a public authority going through a governance crash. The word ‘monitoring’ is too passive.
Nevertheless, many organisations appoint the head of legal services as MO. ‘Heads of’ are junior to directors. So, they are often third tier in the pecking order. It spells out where the MO is perceived to be. This confusion won’t happen to the Head of the Paid Service or the CFO because the clue is in their title.
Obviously, the title ‘Monitoring Officer’ needs to be ditched. I would suggest ‘Chief Governance Officer’ is used for the common-sense reason there ought to be someone responsible for governance despite none of the statutory definitions actually mentioning the word!
I would not hold my breath for Government to put a further amendment in the Levelling up Bill to sort this issue out, and all those MOs who are happy with their title good for them! But those of you who want to change, why not simply join a concerted lobby to retitle the role as ‘Chief Governance Officer’ and call it ‘MO’ in brackets. Local Government Lawyer can always do a survey if there is a dispute about alternative names.
This is doable. The reason being up and down the land stalks the spectre of the risk of another governance failing, striking fear of the ugly fate which has befallen Chief Executives of Croydon, Slough and Thurrock. This will be sending tremors to many a top table. The Chief Executive and the CFO will in all likelihood welcome a more proactive and personable ‘Chief Governance Officer’ watching the authority’s vitals and responding swiftly. So go for it.
Conclusion
Right now, there is great leverage in reminding our colleagues about the recent failure in governance with the cry ‘we don’t want to be another Croydon - do we?’ It packs a serious punch in the fight to get the role of MO redefined as the Chief Governance Officer.
This role is more arduous and more important than ever and a full-time job because the ‘Chief Governance Officer (MO)’ as a human Corporate Vitals Sign Monitor is crucial to the health of the local authority and its ability to function. We need the Chief Executive, Chief Finance Officer, and the Chief Governance Officer all in the same room together.
Will the change in title solve the recruitment crisis? No, of course not. What it does do is establish a better definition of the role, in having the organisational responsibility for pro-active governance.
Dr Paul Feild is the Principal Standards & Governance Solicitor working in Barking & Dagenham Legal Services. His 2015 Doctor of Business Administration thesis was ‘How does Localism for Standards Work in Practice? The Practitioner’s View of Local Standards Post Localism Act 2011’. He has been a deputy Monitoring Officer in various public authorities since 2000 and researches and writes on finance and governance issues. He can be contacted This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
[i] Cox, Ben. Let’s go legal, Municipal Journal 18 April 2023
[ii] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/914651/Annex_2_-_Statutory_officers.pdf
[iii] These machines measure pulse, oxygen, blood pressure systolic and diastolic and will set off an alarm if the vital signs go outside a pre-set envelope.
