The considerable challenges currently faced by local government require pragmatic, creative leadership not only from monitoring officers and those in other senior positions, but also from many officers and lawyers stepping into positions of leadership for the first time and taking on new and often unfamiliar responsibilities. In the aftermath of the pandemic and faced with huge financial, ethical and societal challenges, what does good leadership need to look like now?
Wherever you are in your career and whatever your aspirations, developing leadership skills is vital. Whether you are head of legal, monitoring officer, deputy monitoring officer or team leader, expanding and broadening your management and leadership skills will enable you to lead confidently through periods of uncertainty and develop your strategic contribution.
LLG’s Leadership Conference 2024 will feature sessions from leading speakers on the most up to date issues currently facing those in senior and leadership roles in local authorities. The Conference will begin with a session on support for in-house lawyers with Juliet Oliver, General Counsel at the SRA, followed by a discussion around inclusive leadership with consultant Manisha Patel. Delegates will then hear from Ed Hammond, Deputy Chief Executive, and Camilla de Bernhardt Lane, Director of Practice, from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, exploring issues relating to leadership and scrutiny.
We will then welcome Theresa Grant OBE, Jacqui McKinlay, COO at Liverpool City Council and Dan Fenwick, MO at Thurrock Council, who will be discussing working in intervention, which will be followed by a session with governance trainer and consultant Bethan Evans on leadership and political change. The day will conclude with a session on grievance and disciplinary processes with Sarah Lamont and Anne Palmer from Bevan Brittan.
General Counsel and Deputy Chief Executive, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Juliet is responsible for legal advice and support on the development of strategic and regulatory reform as well as matters of governance and compliance. She also leads the SRA’s investigation and enforcement function, as well as the organisation’s dedicated anti money laundering directorate and proactive engagement and inspections.
Previously a partner at Fieldfisher she acted for regulatory bodies across sectors including healthcare and law. This built on her previous experience at the General Medical Council, where she advised on high profile disciplinary cases and matters, including the Shipman and Mid Staffordshire public inquiries. She is a non-executive board member at the Professional Standards Authority, the oversight regulator for the healthcare professions.
Inclusion & Culture Consultant, Culture Consulting
Non-Executive Director to the LLG Board for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Manisha Patel is an Inclusion and Culture Strategist, Non-Executive Director, Executive Coach, and Founder of the Female Executive Mentoring Programme.
Manisha is currently working with a range of high profile organisations as a strategic advisor on diversity, inclusion and culture. In her role as Non-Executive Director at LLG, Manisha advises and supports the Board on ensuring all strategic decisions embed equality, diversity and inclusion.
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.
Director of Practice, Centre for Governance and Scrutiny
Camilla has worked in Scrutiny for the best part of two decades. She has worked across several Councils, including a Unitary, a City Council, and two County Councils including most recently as Head of Scrutiny at Devon County Council, leading a small team to support Councillors in positive challenge. Since graduating from Sussex in Politics and International relations, she has worked across public sector organisations in scrutiny, consultation, policy and lobbying.
Camilla’s governance and review work has spanned all areas of the Council and NHS, and she was the principal health scrutiny officer for eight years. During her time in scrutiny, she has produced in excess of thirty task group review reports including notable work on problem gambling, the armed forces and health systems. Camilla has also taken the lead in the Heart of the South West joint LEP Scrutiny Committee and new and returning Councillor induction being conducted remotely during the pandemic.
Whilst working full time Camilla has completed an MSc in Policy Research from Bristol University and last year completed her MBA and Senior Leader ILM qualification from Exeter University.
For the past year Camilla has worked for the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny running improvement reviews at different Councils as well as refreshing the offer to regional scrutiny networks. For many years Camilla has also run learning sessions for a variety of Councils, Councillors and officers in elements of good governance.
Theresa has a local government career spanning over four decades, with experience across the UK and Ireland, working in both the public and private sector, including roles at Manchester City Council, the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Trafford Council as CEO and Accountable Officer for the CCG. Theresa also led the financial turnaround of Northamptonshire County Council and creation of the two new Unitary authorities and recently retired as interim CEO at Liverpool City Council, stabilising and leading its recovery through intervention.
During her career, Theresa has also served on many public sector Boards, including as a NED of a FTSE 250 investment company and Trustee on several charities. She was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2021, in recognition of her contribution to the public sector.
Chief Operating Officer, Liverpool City Council
Jacqui joined Liverpool City Council in January 2022 to lead on improvement and transformation, with responsibilities for corporate services including policy, insight, strategy, EDI, communications, customer services, HR and organisational development, ICT/digital.
Prior to joining Liverpool, Jacqui was Chief Executive of the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS), the national centre of expertise on governance and scrutiny. Jacqui oversaw CfGS’ work with a range of sectors including local and national government, health, housing, police and the private sector.
Previously, Jacqui was Director of Strategy and Customer Services at Staffordshire County Council and has worked in health, sport and the civil service.
She is also a proud Board Member of New Local, a national membership and research organisation.
Executive Director of Corporate Services and Monitoring Officer, Thurrock Council
Dan is responsible for the leading on the governance improvements and corporate change in Thurrock in response to the statutory intervention arising out of financial and governance failings at the Council. He was previously Director of Law & Governance at Liverpool City Council where he worked with both Theresa Grant and Jacqui McKinlay on the Council’s successful improvement journey since 2021. He was worked in local government legal roles since 1998 and have sixteen years experience as a monitoring officer in five councils.
Bethan Evans Governance Training and Consultancy
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, Bevan Brittan
Sarah is a specialist employment lawyer with over 25 years' experience in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law. She has particular expertise in TUPE transfers, restructuring and redundancies, complex employment litigation, discrimination/equality issues and senior staff exits. Sarah acts for clients across a wide range of sectors including major corporate employers, housing associations, education bodies and charities and is the Firm’s lead on providing employment advice to local authorities.
Sarah's general experience includes all areas of employment work and she has dealt with a number of high profile cases in Tribunals, the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. She has specific expertise in advising on equal pay and discrimination, restructuring and redundancy programmes, negotiated exits, changing terms and conditions, and providing TUPE advice in connection with service delivery models including shared services, partnering arrangements, joint ventures and outsourcing. Sarah also provides support to in-house legal and HR teams, acting as a sounding board on both strategic and operational HR issues.
Legal Director, Bevan Brittan
Anne is a legal director in the Employment, Pensions and Immigration team and advises a broad range of organisations including local authorities, housing associations, universities, NHS trusts, regulators, charities, colleges of further education, schools and corporate entities.
She deals with all aspects of the employment relationship including contracts and service agreements; policies and procedures; recruitment; reorganisations and redundancies; disciplinary, performance and grievance matters; discrimination and handling employment tribunal cases. Anne undertakes investigations on behalf of clients into workplace disputes.
In particular, she regularly advises on employee transfer issues, including TUPE, secondment and shared employment arrangements, as well as drafting and negotiating employment documentation. Anne is also involved in dispute resolution, dealing with the commercial terms on which the employment of senior employees is brought to an end.
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09:25 - 16:00
Online
