ADSO welcomes draft Code of Practice on Good Governance for Statutory Officers, calls for Monitoring Officer role to be renamed
The Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) has voiced support for LLG, CIPFA and SOLACE's proposed Code of Practice on Good Governance for Statutory Officers and has called for the monitoring officer role to be renamed in legislation 'Chief Governance Officer'.
Writing in its formal consultation response to the draft Code, the professional body which represents governance and democratic services officers including monitoring officers (MOs) from that background, said: "In broad terms, ADSO welcomes the content of the draft Code."
It later added: "The local government sector has long discussed what good governance is, without effectively defining it and the responsibilities of those statutory officers charged with upholding it and calling out examples of poor governance."
LLG, CIPFA and SOLACE launched a consultation on their proposed Code last month. The consultation ended on 5 April.
The three organisations said the draft Code aims to support these roles in working effectively together to deliver good governance.
"Whilst in powerful positions, they must recognise their responsibilities, understand the separation of powers and display good governance," LLG, CIPFA and Solace said.
The draft Code includes the 'Seven Principles of the Golden Triangle', which are as follows:
- Respect Roles and Responsibilities
- Act Wisely: A duty of enquiry and the exercise of statutory functions
- Be Robust in working arrangements
- Resource up: Get the tools to do the job
- Build resilience: Appointing Deputies
- Champion good decision-making
- Effective Oversight: External companies and entities of the authority
In its response, ADSO said it is "supportive of the principles".
However, it said that adopting the seven principles as titled "may lead to some unnecessary confusion with the Seven Principles of Public Life" and suggested an alternative descriptor might be more appropriate.
It also said it "strongly believes" that the title of 'monitoring officer' is "no longer adequate in describing the functions of the role" and recommended it be renamed in legislation as the 'chief governance officer'.
"Whilst this is not something that the Code deals with, it is a relevant point for professional associations connected with the Statutory Officers to consider, promote and support in upholding good governance in local government," ADSO said.
It said a key principle in the draft Code is "recognition of the need to build resilience through the appointment of deputy MOs".
The draft Code refers to the appointment of a deputy for each of the Statutory Officer roles, including Head of Paid Service, where there is no requirement to appoint a deputy.
ADSO's response recommended that this is expanded to "reflect the need to build greater resilience to the functions of the Statutory Officers through a team approach".
It said: "Given the nature of the work MOs are required to undertake, there is much more of a demand for a team approach, rather than the traditional view of seeing local government responsibilities resting with one person.
"In our view, the MO should be expected and required to operate with a team of officers focused on governance issues and with a broad understanding of the political environment."
Commenting on the draft Code, a spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: "This is important work which helps to clarify ways of effective working for these crucial posts as well as their responsibilities.
"It complements work done by the LGA in collaboration with LLG, CIPFA and Solace to develop, map and strengthen the improvement and assurance framework for local government, and our response to this draft has been informed by that work.
"We look forward to the final version of the code of practice informing leadership development programmes for Local Authority Statutory Officers."
The draft Code can be read here.
Adam Carey
