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Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) and the Association of Monitoring Officers (AMO) have welcomed the Government's proposed revisions to the Best Value Statutory Guidance, describing the move towards prevention, self-assessment and early intervention as a positive and important development.
In our response to the consultation, we support the overall direction of travel but argue that the guidance should place greater emphasis on governance as a fundamental pillar of Best Value.
Our central message is that strong governance is not simply one element of organisational performance. Rather, it is one of the foundations upon which effective services, financial sustainability and public trust are built.
Helen Bennett, Executive Director of Policy & Governance at LLG, said:
"We strongly support the Government's focus on helping authorities identify and address problems at an earlier stage. However, experience from local authority interventions repeatedly demonstrates that governance issues often emerge long before financial or service failures become visible. If we are serious about preventing organisational failure, governance must be recognised as a leading indicator of organisational health."
Helen Bradley, AMO Chair, said:
"Our response highlights the unique role of Monitoring Officers in providing assurance on legality, ethical governance, constitutional compliance and standards of conduct. Monitoring Officers should be recognised explicitly within the guidance as a key source of organisational assurance and councils should ensure they have appropriate independence, capacity and direct access to decision-makers"
AMO also calls for greater recognition of the importance of the "golden triangle" relationship between the Head of Paid Service, Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer. Effective working relationships between these three statutory officers, the organisation says, are often among the clearest indicators of a resilient and well-governed authority.
The consultation response further emphasises the need for statutory officer functions to be properly resourced. LLG notes that governance, legal and financial oversight can only operate effectively where authorities invest in sufficient staffing, professional expertise, succession planning and organisational support.
The response also argues that Best Value should focus not only on outcomes but on the quality of decision-making that underpins those outcomes. Authorities should be able to demonstrate that significant decisions are informed by appropriate legal, financial and governance advice, that risks and equalities impacts have been properly considered, and that decision-making processes remain transparent and accountable.
Reflecting the increasing complexity of modern local government, LLG & AMO have also urged the Government to strengthen expectations around governance arrangements for partnerships, shared services, council-owned companies and joint ventures. A number of high-profile local authority failures have demonstrated the risks that can arise where governance, oversight and accountability arrangements are unclear or ineffective.
Overall, LLG & AMO supports the revised guidance and believes it provides an important opportunity to strengthen organisational resilience across local government. The organisation's key recommendation is that the final guidance should place greater emphasis on statutory officer independence, governance capacity, the effective operation of the golden triangle and robust governance assurance as essential tools for identifying and addressing risks before they escalate into formal intervention.
As the consultation response concludes, strong governance should not be viewed as a compliance exercise but as a critical enabler of sustainable organisational performance, democratic accountability and public confidence.
AMO and LLG wishes to thank all its members who took the time to feed into the draft response and help shape our response.
You can read the response here
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