There are five posts which the Council is required to have, with specific responsibilities defined by law. These are called "Statutory Officers":

 

Statutory Officers
Statutory officer Post undertaking the role in Waltham Forest
Head of the Paid Service Chief Executive
Monitoring Officer Director of Governance and Law
Chief Financial Officer Director of Finance
Director of Social Services Executive Director of Adult and Community Services
Chief Education Officer Executive Director of Children Services

 

The following descriptions are taken from the Government's guidance notes on the Local Government Act 2000:

 

The Chief Executive and Head of the Paid Service

The core roles of the Chief Executive (who should be the statutory Head of the Paid Service) should be:

  • overall corporate management and operational responsibility (including overall management responsibility for all staff);
  • the provision of professional advice to all parties in the decision making process (the executive, overview and scrutiny, full council and other committees);
  • together with the Monitoring Officer, responsibility for a system of record keeping for all the local authority’s decisions (executive or otherwise);
  • representing the local authority on partnership and external bodies (as required by statute or the local authority).

These roles are underpinned by the fundamental principles of political neutrality and service to the whole council.

The Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer

In addition to their traditional role of advising all members and officers about vires [what the law allows the Council to do], maladministration, financial impropriety and probity, under executive arrangements the Monitoring Officer and the Chief Finance Officer will also have a role in advising where particular decisions were, or are likely to be, contrary to the policy framework, or contrary to, or not wholly in accordance with, the budget.

Monitoring Officer

Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 places responsibility on the Monitoring Officer for overseeing vires issues, in particular, reporting to the local authority if she or he thinks any proposal, decision or omission would give rise to (broadly) unlawfulness or if any decision has given rise to maladministration.

The Monitoring Officer therefore performs a key function in ensuring lawfulness and fairness in the operation of the local authority’s decision making process, including investigation and reporting on issues that embrace all aspects of the local authority’s functions.

With the introduction of the Ethical Framework under Part III of the Act, there will be significant changes to the role of the Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer will have a key role in promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct within a local authority, in particular through provision of support to the local authority’s Standards Committee. The Monitoring Officer cannot, therefore, be the Head of Paid Service (and therefore chief executive) or the Council Manager.

Local authorities will need to recognise under executive arrangements the importance of the Monitoring Officer’s key roles of providing advice on vires issues, maladministration, financial impropriety, probity and policy framework and budget issues to all members of the local authority.

The Monitoring Officer should also be the proper officer for the purposes of ensuring that executive decisions, together with the reasons for those decisions and relevant officer reports and background papers, are made publicly available.

Chief Finance Officer

Local authorities will need to recognise under executive arrangements the importance of the chief finance officer’s key roles of providing advice on vires issues, maladministration, financial impropriety, probity and policy framework and budget issues to all members of the local authority.

The Chief Finance Officer will also have an important role in the management of the local authority, in particular by:

  • contributing to corporate management, in particular through the provision of professional financial advice;
  • maintaining financial administration and stewardship;
  • supporting and advising members and officers in their respective roles;
  • providing financial information to the media, members of the public and the community.

More information

Full details of the guidance (external) can be found at the website of the Department of Communities and Local Goverment (external). This is a central government department.

Contact Us:

Waltham Forest Direct
Tel: 020 8496 3000
Email: WFDirect@walthamforest.gov.uk