New SLG chief warns that local government upheaval could pose threat to professional standards
Changes in the local government sector that threaten the ability of its lawyers to work properly to external professional standards and regulation “should and must be resisted”, the incoming chair of Solicitors in Local Government has said.
Speaking at the Weekend School in York, Steve Turner of Hull City Council said: “The working landscape is changing in some ways beyond recognition as the effects of the recession filter or in some cases flood their way down. This could be a painful process for many local authorities and their legal departments as they strive to maintain services and good governance against ever pressured and decreasing budgets.”
He said SLG would play its part in ensuring the group’s members are equipped and ready to provide added value to the activities of their authorities.
Turner warned that local government lawyers must guard against a constant ‘more from less’ strategy. “Any organisation has a critical mass below which it is severely at risk from implosion either through lack of time to make effective judgments and decisions or the unavailability of prompt, proper and effective advice,” he said.
Those in local government in charge of budgets who want to impose change need to remember that local authority lawyers work to external professional standards and regulation, he added. Turner said: “Any change or pressure that threatens or places our members in a position where it is impossible for them to work properly to those standards should and must be resisted.”
The new SLG chief suggested that local government lawyers “must be ready to provide a sure source of sound advice and guidance even in new and somewhat uncharted territory” after the elections. “I know they will be,” he added.
Turner said that over the next 12 months the SLG would continue to strengthen its branch structure. Among the changes planned is the development of an All-Wales branch as a consequence of the widening of the jurisdictions of England and Wales.
The SLG will also continue to provide a mechanism to harness and share its members’ collective knowledge, particularly through its website and special interest groups.
Turner paid tribute to his predecessor, Guy Goodman, solicitor and monitoring officer at Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Services, and the efforts of the volunteers that make SLG “a thriving member-led organisation”.
Bev Cullen of Lancashire County Council and Helen McGrath of the London Borough of Hounslow have become vice-chair and deputy vice-chair respectively.