Assistant Director, Law and Governance; and Monitoring Officer

Role Overview

The council is seeking to appoint an Assistant Director to lead our Law and Governance functions, including elections, and to be the council’s Monitoring Officer.

Sitting on our Corporate Leadership Team, you will form a key part of the council’s Golden Triangle, bringing to the role a thorough understanding of the role of the Monitoring Officer in local government, how this interacts with the other statutory officers to ensure assurance, and the legislative and advisory framework for good governance (Government guidance on best value standards, LLG, CIPFA and Solace’s Code of Practice on Good Governance for Local Authority Statutory Officers, and the LGA’s Improvement and Assurance Framework).

Our work on assurance has been significant, with a review of our constitution and changes to our Annual Governance Statement implemented this year, following a review of our practice against the above assurance frameworks.

As well as carrying out the essential duties of our Monitoring Officer you will provide highly visible and dynamic leadership to our Law and Governance functions. We have recently been working with Lawyers in Local Government to understand how the organisation commissions and resources legal services, which will give you a clear evidence base and corporate leadership support for implementing a new vision for the service and the organisation.

This will play to your strong leadership and change management skills.

• Provide highly visible leadership to the Law and Governance functions and the Monitoring Officer duties.
• Lead the elections team in partnership with the Service Manager for Democratic Services, delivering high profile elections and other statutory functions essential to the democratic process.
• Coordinate with lawyers in Local Government to shape commissioning and resource strategies for legal services.
• Ensure compliance with governance frameworks and continuously improve assurance frameworks.

For an informal discussion contact Matt Wilton, Deputy Chief Executive.

Apply online at , select 'Apply Now' and complete our online application form. Before completing the form please ensure you read the supporting documents. Any communication sent to you regarding your application will be sent to the email address you have set up on your Northeast Jobs account, so you will need to ensure that you check your inbox.