We are delighted to be holding this year’s Monitoring Officer Conference in London, kindly hosted by Trowers & Hamlins. The Conference will include a varied programme of sessions covering some of the most topical and challenging issues facing MOs and those working alongside them.
We are delighted to be joined by Amerdeep Somal, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who will be delivering the keynote address to open the Conference. Delegates will then hear from Bethan Evans, leading governance trainer and consultant, who will be exploring the essential skills and competencies needed to thrive as a successful Monitoring Officer. This will be followed by a session on enabling strong and effective scrutiny with Ed Hammond, Deputy Chief Executive at the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, Paul McDermott, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins, Louis Sebastian, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins and Doreen Forrester-Brown, Assistant Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer at Southwark Council.
The afternoon Conference sessions will begin with a panel session on good governance, local authority joint ventures and the lessons learned from the Tees Valley Review with Emma Simson, Legal Manager at Tees Valley CC, Jill Travers, Director of Law and Corporate Services at Wirral Council and Philip McCourt, Legal Director at Bevan Brittan. We’ll then have a session with Joanne Pitt, Senior Policy Manager at CIPFA, who will be discussing Exceptional Financial Support, the assurance mechanism and the role of the MO. The Conference will conclude with a session from Doreen Forrester-Brown on the golden triangle, skills needed in a role as strategic leader, and the combined role of MO/Assistant CEO.
Full details of all speakers and a programme will be available shortly.
Director of Legal and Democratic Services, Durham County Council
Helen trained as a solicitor in Local Government and has nearly 20 years’ experience in working at both district and unitary level. Helen initially specialised in civil and criminal litigation, obtaining Higher Rights of audience in the criminal courts. Since becoming a Deputy Monitoring Officer and subsequently a Monitoring Officer, Helen has specialised in all aspects of local authority governance but has a particular interest in the Standards Regime.
In February 2024, Amerdeep Somal took on the role of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman alongside her positions as Board Chair of the Law Society and as a Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (not currently sitting).
Amerdeep has a wealth of experience, having previously acted as the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner and the Chief Commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission. She was also a former founding Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
CEO, LLG
Deborah is responsible for driving forward the strategic ambitions of LLG, working closely with the board to design the best possible service for the lawyers who make up our membership. She assists in setting the strategy whilst leading the team to deliver the organisations goals within an agreed budget to ensure tangible value for money for local authorities. Collaborating with others across the sector, Deborah strives for local and national influence on key policy items through improved visibility and an ambitious policy and campaign agenda.
Since her appointment as LLG’s first CEO in 2018, Deborah has steered the transformation of the organisation to one with strong levels of membership engagement with a vibrant online knowledge, training and conference programme. Deborah and the talented team ensured that LLG demonstrated its value during the pandemic, producing fast-paced guidance and lobbying for policy change to ensure members could thrive. In 2021, Deborah led the launch of the first national work experience week for law students in local authorities across the country, with a plan to repeat this annually, complemented by a national graduate recruitment scheme in 2023.
GOVTC
Beth is a recognised expert in local authority governance, having worked in the field for over 35 years. She worked as an in-house lawyer for nearly 20 years at four different councils in England specialising in housing, education and social care. Beth then moved into management posts, culminating in roles as a County Solicitor and a Director of Corporate Services in a unitary authority.
Beth led the Welsh Local Government Agency responsible for improvement and development in Welsh local government for three years. In 2001 she joined Bevan Brittan LLP as a partner where she led the local government team for 17 years, four of which she spent as senior partner.
Beth acted as secretary and chair of a branch and then as national chair of the (then) Local Government Group in 1998/99.
Partner, Trowers & Hamlins
Paul has worked with a range of local authorities, registered providers of social housing and other public sector organisations to develop public private schemes and create structures which enable multi agency service delivery to be effective.
He specialises in advising Councils on major housing PFI/PPP projects and major regeneration projects.
Paul is also an expert in the provision of advice to clients on the development of innovative strategic partnerships for the delivery of improved public services. Paul has a great deal of experience in the application of the law to the creation of local authority companies and joint ventures. He has also provided local authority clients with expert advice on a range of diversity issues.
Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Governance and Scrutiny
Ed Hammond leads CfGS' research programme as well as delivery of major governance and scrutiny reviews. This includes public and private sector clients, with a focus on core work in local government. His recent work has involved the provision of specialist governance improvement support to a range of councils, including Kensington and Chelsea, Thurrock, Croydon and Liverpool. Ed also leads on the support of councils to innovate in the sphere of governance and community participation, having led the secretariat supporting the independent Newham Democracy Commission, whose work led to the establishment of the UK’s first standing citizen’s assembly.
Ed has provided technical support on constitution change and renewal to a number of local authorities, having recently worked for Northumberland, Southampton and Southend amongst others. This has involved support for dialogue with councillors and senior officers about the renewal and redrafting of major elements of council constitutions, as well as leading on the redrafting itself. As well as engaging with the technical detail of constitutions’ legal compliance he also works to understand and act on the need for improvement in councils’ political and organisational dynamics. Improvement in this area is an important part of making any constitutional changes “stick”.
This advice and expertise on constitutional arrangements extends to formal governance change, and as well as having written the only detailed practical guide on the process and practice of governance change for English authorities, he has provided practical support to nearly two dozen authorities who have considered their options in this regard since 2012.
Ed has also produced guidance for councils on a range of matters relating to overview and scrutiny, having started his career in this space twenty years ago. He provided technical advice to DLUHC in drafting the 2019 statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny and is currently advising Government on the development of the new Scrutiny Protocol for combined authorities. He has been working with government on the implementation of new arrangements for health scrutiny, further to the Health and Care Act 2022. In 2023, a major priority of Ed’s work is a deepening of the support provided to councils on financial oversight and scrutiny.
Partner, Trowers & Hamlins
Louis is a solicitor in the Corporate Commercial department with particular experience in public procurement, outsourcing and major projects.
He has acted for clients in both the public and private sectors, particularly in relation to commercial agreements and long-term partnering arrangements across a number of industries including Waste, Digital Technology, Supply Contracts, Leisure and Regeneration.
Louis has also advised on complex procurements, contributing to the drafting of procurement documentation, participating in the evaluation and clarification process and negotiating final contracts following selection of a preferred bidder. He has also advised on broader procurement issues stemming from legislation and case law such as timescales, vires and variations.
He has in-depth knowledge of public sector governance processes and vires matters. Having worked in-house as deputy monitoring officer at a local authority, he has first-hand experience of council constitutions, establishing and restructuring council committees and ensuring proper decision making processes are implemented and followed. He has also advised on defending procurement and other public law challenges.
Louis is also an expert on Data Protection law. He advises clients on their internal compliance processes and policies as well as the proper structuring of data transfers in commercial and contractual arrangements.
Assistant Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer, Southwark Council
Doreen Forrester-Brown has been Assistant Chief Executive at Southwark Council since February 2023, and has worked with Southwark Council since July 2012 as the Council's Monitoring Officer.
Doreen has worked in both the private and public sectors and has worked in local government for over 25 years; starting her career in Hammersmith & Fulham, moving to Greenwich, then Hackney before coming to Southwark Council.
She is a qualified solicitor and alongside an LLB, holds a diploma in management studies and a diploma in local government law.
Doreen was the President of Lawyers in Local Government between 2016 and 2018 and while in the role undertook a fundamental review of the governance of the organisation.
Legal Director, Bevan Brittan
Philip specialises in local authority corporate law and decision making. He is qualified as both a chartered secretary and a solicitor and has worked for a wide range of local authorities from 1988, first becoming a monitoring officer in 2000, and joined Bevan Brittan in 2022.
Philip has led the drafting on a number of national projects on governance and standards, including:
the LLG, CIPFA and Solace Code of Practice on Good Governance for Local Authority Statutory Officers (2024)
model Members’ Planning Code (described by the Supreme Court as offering sound practical advice);
the LLG example Code for the Governance of Council Interests in Companies; and
materials and training products that made up the LGA (IDeA) Ethical Governance Toolkit.
Philip is the current author of Knowles on Local Authority Meetings, is a contributor and editor for Lexis Nexis and an examiner for the Law Society’s Local Government Diploma.
Director of Law & Corporate Services, Wirral Council
Joining local government in 1994, initially in an elections team and then to train as a lawyer, Jill has continued, since that date, to work in the corporate centre for several authorities. Jill has worked for a City Council, District Council, a Royal Borough, a London Borough, large metropolitan authorities, and a Combined Authority. Jill was appointed as a Deputy Monitoring Officer in a London Borough in 2004/5 and became a Monitoring Officer in 2008. In working for so many authorities, Jill has experienced a wide range of governance arrangements, political landscapes, officer and political leadership styles. She has worked in both Cabinet and Committee systems.
She initiated and contributed to a nationally recognised resource in conjunction with Weightmans- the Monitoring Officer Handbook. In this Handbook, she changed the focus of typical resources for Monitoring Officers from legal/technical resources to consider skills and aptitudes for successful Monitoring Officers. In addition to being a Monitoring Officer, Jill has, in one of those authorities, combined her responsibilities with being a Director of Environment, delivering transformation in the services and structure. Jill has held the SIRO responsibility for several authorities. Jill has worked with regional and national government on key projects and participates in national professional network and coordinates regional professional network. Jill is currently the Director of Law & Corporate Services at Wirral MBC.
Senior Policy Manager, CIPFA
Joanne Pitt is an experienced local government advisor with 25 years of public sector knowledge.
She was responsible for the delivery of the CIPFA Financial Management Code along with its supportive guidance and is an advocate of strong financial management and good governance.
She has written widely on topics such as government funding, Section 114 notices, council companies and financial sustainability and as a senior policy manager in CIPFA has represented the Institute on the BBC, local and national radio and is regularly quoted in the press.
Through her work with CFOs across the country she supports local government improvement and reform using data analysis and strong evidence-based insight, always focused on improving financial resilience.
Joanne is a member of the Future Public Services Task Force a group of committed and experienced professionals looking to deliver a public service reform strategy for central government as a way forward.
Prior to joining the policy team Joanne held a variety of roles within the Institute through which she has gained experience in contract negotiations, client engagement, fraud and anticorruption, business planning and the delivery of bespoke consultancy projects. All these skills build on her management experience in local government.
Joanne completed a degree at Leeds University before finishing a postgraduate qualification in housing at the University of Westminster. Additional qualifications include shared service architect practitioner, EFQM, CIPFA NED certification and a Level 7 Post graduate diploma in Corporate Governance.
Legal Manager, Tees Valley Combined Authority
3 Bunhill Row, London , EC1Y 8YZ
Related training
09:00 - 16:30
Trowers & Hamlins 3 Bunhill Row, London , EC1Y 8YZ
