Make monitoring officer and s151 officer part of executive leadership team, governance peer review tells council where relationships “badly eroded”

That is among recommendations by a Local Government Association (LGA) governance peer review of the troubled authority.

Reviewers said in their report: “The council’s management structure sees the statutory roles of Section 151 officer and monitoring officer reporting to the executive director of corporate resources.

“Given the importance of these roles to the good governance of the council and, as part of that, the postholders being ‘fully in the loop’ and integral to organisational decision-making, we recommend that the Section 151 officer and monitoring officer become standing members of the Executive Leadership Team (as the council’s senior management forum).”

Doncaster called in the LGA after a series of disputes arising in part from an unusual political situation in which Labour elected mayor Rob Jones runs the council with a minority Labour cabinet but Reform UK has a large majority among councillors.

The reviewers said the council’s governance had “been significantly tested since the elections in May 2025 as an influx of new councillors has brought new perspectives and shifted the cultural dynamics of the council, particularly at the senior officer and elected member level”.

They said relationships “have been badly eroded amongst a small cohort of people at the senior leadership level politically and managerially and trust has been eroded between a significant proportion, but not all, of the elected membership and the senior officer leadership”.

Opportunities created to develop understanding, engagement and relationships were not taken up as they should have been and there “appears to be a lack of acceptance of the realities of what the democratic outcomes from the elections mean, in terms of decision-making within an elected mayor model, for a political group with a large majority on the council.

“There also seems to be a lack of understanding of how that large majority can still be influential and impactful.”

One of the most contentious areas is around which information was or should have been shared by officers with which elected members, at what points and through which channels.

“There is a risk that this situation becomes more fraught and self-reinforcing as officers become more cautious about sharing information,” the LGA said.

“This risk needs to be averted – an environment needs to be created in which information flows more readily and openly.”

Reviewers made 35 recommendations. These included provision of policy support to Reform UK as the majority political group, and creation of a cross-party budget development process in which all political groups are adequately supported by officers to contribute constructively.

They also called for a strengthened member/officer protocol “with a strong focus on behaviours and to support a clear distinction of respective roles and boundaries and to promote mutual respect”.

Another proposal was for an independently chaired cross-party constitution reference group, working with the monitoring officer.

Reviewers noted the constitution had not been revised since 2011 and said the group could “provide councillors with both insight and a way of positively channelling their thoughts and ideas”.

In a joint statement, Ms Jones and group leaders said they accepted all the review’s recommendations and added: “We acknowledge that there are things that are working well and things that could be better, and we are committed to supporting the implementation of all of the actions, to deliver the improvements for the people of Doncaster.”

Mark Smulian