Blog: 24 March 2023 - Helen Edwards, LLG President

With LLG’s AGM taking place next Wednesday, I pass the Presidency to Rachel McKoy with a sense of pride about how far we have come as an organisation. LLG has been on a journey over a number of years, capitalising on the vision and innovation of each previous President to pivot the organisation into the modern, agile, membership focused and nationally recognised body it is today.

To have overseen the strategic drive this past year has been an absolute privilege. Internally it was important to address the wide disparity within the branches and implement a model to better serve the regions and engage the grassroot membership. Embarking on an extensive consultation, I am delighted that we have engendered the changes within the year of my tenure to bring this about for the future. I am also delighted that we have achieved a more open and transparent appointment process to the Board of Directors, with a number of elections taking place in a variety of positions.

One of my key themes of the past year was to focus on equalities, diversity, inclusion, and social mobility within the law. I have overseen the start of a detailed research on this theme and look forward to the next steps to safeguard the future of our profession.

Externally we have increased the number of stakeholder bodies with which we engage and identified joint working opportunities. We were delighted that the government pledged increased statutory protection for Monitoring Officers which formed part of our Golden Triangle Campaign. We continue to press on the standards regime and the need for sanctions and were pleased to engage with the Ombudsman’s ‘Triennial Review’.

We have remained unrelenting in our campaign for remote meeting provision for local government over this past year along with ADSO and I was delighted, that LLG received a specific mention in the House of Lords in a debate which demonstrated huge support for the cause.

The local government world is a complex one to navigate. I leave my tenure very proud of the people I have met who show daily dedication and professionalism in all that they do. I pass the baton to our incoming President, Rachel McKoy, who I know will be a dedicated and impassioned President.

Thank you to the board for all their support over the past year and thank you too, to the LLG Team who work tirelessly behind the scenes to give operational effect to our bold designs.

With very best wishes

Helen Edwards