Blog: 16 December 2022 - Helen Edwards, LLG President

It’s been quite a year for local government and the public at large. You could be more than forgiven for feeling rather despondent. We have the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis, industrial actions sweeping the UK and the ever-changing scenery of national politics. But despite all this, it’s important to take the time to reflect on your achievements, the big wins which have made 2022 a year in which you added real value to your authorities and communities. 

At LLG, we are immensely proud of our achievements over the past year as we emerged from the pandemic. We got back into in-person conferences. Tentatively at first with the Spring Conference, which also saw the celebration of significant talent at the LLG Awards, followed by the big bang of the Governance Conference in November which was a huge success. We were particularly pleased to fund junior lawyers to attend our conferences this year and will continue to make provision moving forward.  

We continued to provide free LLG Webinars and National Lead meetings to our members throughout the year, together with the weekly LLG Bulletin and LLG Podcast. We responded to a number of consultations including the Human Rights Act- Bill of Rights and Liberty Protection Safeguards. We gave oral evidence to a parliamentary select committee and played a part in obtaining legal aid reform for kinship carers. We finally saw the government’s commitment to expanding statutory protections for monitoring officers having lobbied hard on this issue. We reached 11,000 signatures on our remote meeting provision for local authorities’ campaign and continue to lobby hard, forging new links with other stakeholders such as the RTPI and even mumsnet.  

LLG again, with your help, delivered a highly successful Work Experience Week benefiting around 50 students and going someway to engendering succession in the workplace. We engaged with the LGA on their Debate not Hate programme and indeed, collaborated with a range of stakeholders including ADSO, the CfGS, CIPFA, SOLACE, AEA, NALC and SLCC on a host of issues facing local government. We have also continued to offer a varied training programme including topics such as standards and conduct, local authority companies and procurement.  

LLG have also started projects that will launch next year. We will see Regional Directors on the board to galvanise the grass root membership. We will roll out a new MO Defence Scheme and launch our LLG Inspire course. We will move forward with our National Graduate Recruitment Campaign with a dedicated subsite on our website, and we will also see the introduction of the LLG Alumni. Next year will also continue to see all the existing training, courses and information provision rolled out to the membership to enable you to do your job. Despite the challenges, we have numerous things to feel a sense of achievement about, and many more things to look forward to.  

If you would like to step up and get involved in the work of LLG, we will be seeking a Deputy Vice President (to become the President in 2025) in January when the advert goes live. It is a pivotal position in setting the strategy of the company and demonstrating leadership within our sector. If you would welcome an informal discussion, please contact Helen@llg.org.uk. 

Finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

Helen Edwards 

LLG President