Blog: Friday 28th June 2024 - Aneeka Muneer, LLG President

I had the pleasure of attending the Socitm conference recently. Socitm is the society for innovation, technology and modernisation whose stated purpose it to be the preferred network of leading professionals innovating and modernising public services. We have worked with them previously on our remote meeting campaign for local government and our collaboration is evidence once again of the local government family and how intertwined our services are for the effective delivery of public services – collectively we are stronger.

The advancement of technology in line with current infrastructure is one major challenge for the public sector and the discussions around AI (led by a prominent leader in the NHS) highlighted the complexity of how we utilise the potential for advancement against the risks still being identified.  We of course discussed this at our Spring Conference recently and it’s a topic that will continue to dominate.

I was particularly interested to hear the message from Ian Thomas OBE on the subject of EDI. He was right that equality will not be resolved until “leaders stop recruiting their own image”. Our sector has always been at the forefront of EDI, but that doesn’t mean discrimination has been completely eradicated. We must not be complacent; we must always be mindful both personally and corporately of the role we play.

We must not forget too, that prominent people from a diverse range of backgrounds is so incredibly important to inspire future leaders. This is why I am so proud to be President of LLG and why past president Rachel Mckoy was able to inspire so many. I was particularly moved to hear the story of Doreen Forrester-Brown who was awarded the Significant Contribution to Local Government Law and Practice award at our LLG Awards ceremony recently. Doreen is the child of Windrush parents and is an absolute testament to determination and success. It is my sincere wish that others see and believe that they too can achieve great things.

I must take the opportunity here to thank all LLG staff for their excellent work on the Awards which was a brilliant celebration and for their ongoing efforts in service delivery for the benefit of our sector. They are an incredibly small team who deliver so much and the Board remains grateful for their enthusiastic efforts.

Finally, we are currently embarking on a governance review of our own systems and procedures. It has been some years since we last undertook a review and we have grown the company since that time and are of course post-covid. Now is the right time to ensure that we are operating in a fit for purpose way with governance front and centre. We will be sharing the outcomes from the review in the Autumn and as ever, will be listening to the membership on its priorities for the future.

Aneeka Muneer, LLG President