Blog: Friday 28th October 2025 - Rachel Mckoy- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO LEAD THE PROFESSIONAL BODY

Welcome from the LLG Governance Conference 2025!

This week’s blog comes to you from the LLG Governance Conference, held at Fenchurch Street, London.

LLG President, Paul Turner, opened proceedings with a warm welcome, extending thanks to our distinguished guests from Ireland and Scotland, alongside representatives from the Law Society, ADSO, LGA, SLCC, the LGLS Trust, Corporate Partners, and the Ombudsman. He also paid tribute to colleagues Joanna Boaler and Katie Bray, acknowledging their daily support and in his words ‘putting up with him’!

Paul reminded delegates that 2025 is a year of seismic change across local government. Reorganisation, devolution, pension fund pooling, and the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill all signal a sector in transition. His reflections highlighted both opportunities and challenges in navigating this evolving landscape.

On remote meetings, Paul welcomed recent government announcements, noting how vital they are for modern governance. He observed, however, that it would have been even more impactful had the provisions been embedded within the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

Turning to member transparency, Paul drew attention to amendments ensuring that councillors’ home addresses will no longer be published by default, alongside the repeal of outdated legislation requiring councils to keep lists of members’ addresses available for public inspection. These changes, he noted, are a sensible step forward in safeguarding personal privacy.

On standards, Paul confirmed that the consultation had received a strong and positive response from the sector. While there is clear appetite for swift implementation, he cautioned that this reform is complex and must be carefully designed. LLG, he affirmed, welcomes the opportunity to work closely with CLG to shape the final proposals.

Finally, Paul celebrated the launch of the Professional Body, describing it as the culmination of significant effort and collaboration. He urged the monitoring officer community to lend their full support, recognising the body’s potential to strengthen professional identity and collective voice across local government law.

The LLG Team

The Association of Monitoring Officers (AMO)

The launch of AMO at the Governance Conference was received with such gusto. This is certainly an exciting and historic period in the life journey of Monitoring Officers - a campaign that has been in gestation for a long time. As a practising Monitoring Officer, it is a real privilege to be leading the establishment and development of our first professional body as its inaugural Executive Director.

For members that may not be aware, AMO is the new professional body for Monitoring Officers, Deputy Monitoring Officers and aspiring Monitoring Officers. It has been established out of the need to create a safe space for colleagues undertaking these complex roles. It will be live from January 2026 with the initial roll out of specific benefits such as the MO Support line, with many more coming on stream in the following months.

It is fantastic to witness such engaging and stimulating discussion with our LLG family about the aims and ambitions of the Association and the important ways in which it will add valued support to our Monitoring Officers and Deputy Monitoring Officers at the daily forefront of challenge and change at the conference.

For those of you that may have missed day 1 of conference and those of you keen to learn more we will also be holding an member forum engagement session on the remote day 2 of the conference to get into the weeds of what policy and guidance resources members would like to enable the Association to prioritise those immediate "things to do" during the course of 2026. I very much look forward to speaking with those of you who may be attending. It is important that your concerns and the issues that you feel most important are part of the narrative.

On the launch of AMO, LLG President, Paul Turner said “I’m really excited about the Launch of the Association of Monitoring Officers.  I have long felt that this monitoring officers need this - Chief Executives have SOLACE, Finance Officers have CIPFA but up to now Monitoring Officers haven’t had the same support.   I am delighted that LLG has agreed to act as the parent organisation for AMO.  It’s great to see the hard work starting to take effect.

AMO will be inclusive for anyone who is serious about the role of being a Monitoring Officer or Deputy. We hope that in a couple of years, it will be unthinkable that any MO will choose not to be a member.   

We want to support members in every way we can, building on the excellent work that LLG has done as the parent organisation.   We want to harness the power of monitoring officers to support each other, with peer-reviewed guidance as well as a helpline to support colleagues.

The aim of AMO is to give monitoring officers the support they need to do their job - the ammunition if you like.

I’d like to thank everyone who has worked over the last few months to set it up, particularly the Working Group members and LLG’s Chief Executive.  It’s fantastic that we are now in a place where we can launch AMO and welcome Rachel McKoy as the first programme director for AMO.  Rachel knows what it is to ‘live the MO dream’ as well as being fantastically well connected and we are very lucky to have secured her services”

AMO is currently free to join, on a non-obligation basis, until 1 April 2026 with full membership details set out on the AMO page of the LLG website (click here).

Rachel McKoy

Executive Director of the Association of Monitoring Officers