Whether you’re a council leader, portfolio holder, backbencher, or member of the opposition, you will know who the chief executive of your council is.
Clearly, it is a high-profile and complex role, but how much do you know about what it actually entails?
The position of council chief executive stems from a long history. Town clerks, the forerunners of today’s chief executives, derive from a time not long after the Domesday book, and this unique and vital role has evolved over the centuries as local government has changed, most visibly during the Victorian era, when many of our familiar local institutions were built.
It wasn’t until the 1960s, however, that a more corporate and strategic approach to local government was considered, leading to the 1972 Bains report on management and structure, and finally creating the chief executive role and its four principle aspects:
- managerial leadership of the organisation
- providing and securing advice to the council on strategy and policy
- acting in an executive capacity by making decisions or ensuring a system is in place for other officers to make decisions, as authorised by the council
- delivering probity, value for money and continuous improvement.
Alongside this report, the Local Government Act 1972 reconstructed the local government system, with much of the present structure of the sector in the UK deriving largely from these reforms. It was within this context that Solace, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, was born, from an amalgamation of town clerks’ associations.
Over the past 50 years since this reorganisation, the precise role of the chief executive has never been clearly defined in law: the last national consideration was in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, which required councils to designate an officer as ‘head of the paid service’ and define certain limited functions for that post.
“What council chief executives do has shifted substantially”
But it is clear that what council chief executives do has shifted substantially over the decades, as the operating environment for local government has become ever more complex.
Solace’s recently released ‘Rewind’ report – a collection of articles written by 20 of the sector’s most prominent former council chief executives – is a fascinating account of how this role has evolved in the past half-century since Solace’s inception. It provides an in-depth understanding of the chief executive’s varied, exciting and challenging role, as well as how different events have impacted on those in post at the time.
A recurring theme throughout this fascinating collection is that a complementary relationship between officers and councillors, defined by mutual understanding and trust, is key to the health of a local authority.
Another theme is the ever-present need for top-quality local leadership – at both political and officer level.
That is why Solace offers a wide range of learning and development opportunities for our members, and why we were delighted to launch, in partnership with the LGA, our Local Government Chief Executives’ Development Framework, a programme that we hope to expand to all senior staff.
As Sir Michael Lyons argues in his foreword to Rewind, the next government (whatever its political colour) should invest more in the development of a strong local leadership pipeline so that the council chief executives of today and tomorrow have the skills to ensure the communities they serve, in conjunction with councillors, not only survive, but – most importantly – thrive.
Find out more about the work of Solace and to download its ‘Rewind’ report.