LLG reveals name and goals of new professional body for monitoring officers

AMO's inaugural Executive Director, Rachel McKoy, described the organisation as the "new professional home for monitoring officers".

In an earlier interview with Local Government Lawyer, McKoy said the body will aim to strengthen governance standards, provide authoritative guidance and support practitioners through a period of "immense upheaval" across local government.

Speaking at the launch, Paul Turner, LLG President, told delegates that AMO will sit within LLG's organisational framework but operate with its own distinct identity and policy voice.

The body will be governed by a 10-seat committee, chaired by the National Lead monitoring officer (MO), and comprising one Welsh MO representative, two non-legally-qualified MOs, and six open seats.

The committee will operate in shadow form until elections in 2027.

LLG also announced the membership of the interim committee, which is chaired by Helen Bradley, LLG's Vice President and National Lead for Monitoring Officers and Governance. Other members are:

• Paul Turner – LLG President & Essex CC MO
• Anita Bradley – LLG Deputy Vice President & Oxfordshire CC MO
• Patricia Narebor – LLG London Director & Bexley LBC MO
• Heloise MacAndrew – Lancashire CC MO
• Benjamin Watts – Kent CC Deputy Chief Executive
• Nicola Robason – South Tyneside MBC MO
• Gareth Owens – Flintshire CC MO
• Tracy Manning – Fylde BC MO (ADSO nominee)
• Alison Stuart – Islington LBC MO

The committee will be supported by Phil McCourt of Bevan Brittan.

In a recorded message played at the conference, interim chair Helen Bradley spoke of the pressures faced by new and experienced monitoring officers alike.

"I can still remember the feeling as a newly appointed MO. That feeling of imposter syndrome, the uncertainty, doubting my own ability. There are times when I still have moments where I think, 'What on earth am I going to do with this one?' And it's through those times that the LLG network has really come into its own."

Bradley said this was why she originally created the Phone-a-Friend service for MOs and deputy MOs, and added: "AMO is taking that one step further with the monitoring officers helpline – offering that safe sounding board for colleagues when they need it most."

Commenting broadly on AMO's remit, she said: "For far too long, monitoring officers have been the poor relation of the statutory officers, whether that's where we sit in the organisation or what people understand our role to be.

"Section 151 officers have CIPFA. Chief executives have SOLACE, and now MOs have AMO. It's a place for us to reflect, collaborate, develop sector standards and be a representative voice for our profession. It's our professional body, and it will be very much what we make it. So please engage with it. If there's something that you'd like us to provide, let us know, and we'll do our best to provide it."

Conference announcements set out the areas where AMO will initially focus its best practice guidance, including: The role of the monitoring officer and deputy monitoring officers, issuing a section 5 report, the MO's role in assurance, and section 36 exemptions in freedom of information requests.

It will also establish guidance on the right to access information, dealing with non-standards complaints raised to the MO, responding to ombudsman reports, the interplay between section 5 and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman reports, and member conduct guidance.

In addition, the body plans to produce guidance on the MO's role in setting the budget and the policy framework, the position of the MO in the management structure, and working with deputy monitoring officers.

AMO will also work on governance-specific guidance, which will see the creation of ethical governance toolkits and guidance on the following areas:

• Whistleblowing
• Reviewing constitutions
• Member induction
• Political balance regulations
• Guidance on delegations
• Pre-election issues
• Removal of senior officers
• Indemnities
• Role of Officers and Members (Disclosable pecuniary interests, and twin-hatted members and dispensations)

AMO is also considering the creation of a 'counsel fund' to get advice on national issues, a 'safe space' for people to anonymously raise concerns, training and conferences, responding to government consultations, lobbying and national and regional networking events.

LLG's monitoring officer defence scheme and its monitoring officer conference will meanwhile be transferred to AMO.

Monitoring officers, deputies and aspiring MOs are now able to sign up to AMO via LLG's website.

Membership is free until April, after which a "modest" subscription will be introduced to cover operating costs. LLG members will not automatically transfer.

In her interview with Local Government Lawyer, McKoy said AMO will be a "big voice" in shaping the Government's planned reforms to the standards regime, and that it will also support monitoring officers through Local Government Reorganisation and devolution.

Describing AMO's objectives, McKoy said: "The new body is going to be that credible, authoritative, and collective professional body for us. It means generating that sector-wide awareness and engagement, but also being that national voice so we can champion good governance, ethical leadership, and statutory integrity."

McKoy - who is a former LLG president and formerly Director of Law & Governance (Monitoring Officer) at the London Boroughs of Newham/Havering (One Source) and Hounslow - said the concept had been "in gestation" at LLG for some time, and has been championed in particular by current LLG President Paul Turner.

The launch drew strong support from across the sector, with a number of professional bodies recording messages for the conference.

Dennis Skinner, Director of Partnerships and Improvement at the LGA, told delegates that AMO has launched at a time of "unprecedented challenges for local government", adding that the work of MOs is "more important than ever".

He said the LGA looks forward to collaborating with AMO to "share good practice, coordinate learning and development programmes, and promote peer support".

A spokesperson for the Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) said the body "could not have come at a better time", adding that ADSO had been closely involved in its development and expects AMO to make "a huge impact on the sector in years to come".

Ian Murray, Director of Public Financial Management at CIPFA, welcomed AMO "to the professional bodies club".

"It's a really significant step that acknowledges the important work and role of the monitoring officer in ensuring that public services are delivered in well-governed and transparent ways," Murray added.

Jonathan Goolden of law firm Wilkin Chapman Rollits said: "Thirty years after the post of monitoring officer was created, it's high time that there is a professional body to represent and advocate for monitoring officers in the same way CIPFA and SOLACE do for the other statutory officers in the Golden Triangle."

Sian Ballingall, partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, said she was "genuinely over the moon" that MOs and their deputies will be able to "harness their collective voice and wisdom and build a safe space where they can share their experience and perhaps even together weather the occasional storm".

Adam Carey