Martin Ford 15 June 2023

Thurrock commissioners call for sector-wide change

Commissioners at crisis-hit Thurrock Council have called for sector-wide measures to bolster the role of top officers.

The team from Essex CC led by Tony McArdle made recommendations for the wider sector in its Best Value report on Thurrock, published today.

It suggested the Government issued guidance to strengthen the role of the three statutory officers – section 151, monitoring officer and head of paid service – and require them to work together, in addition to legislating to ‘strengthen and clarify’ the role of the monitoring officer.

Earlier this year, Max Caller, a regular reviewer and commissioner at failing authorities, said there was ‘no real rules’ on how the three statutory roles should work and ‘no explicit qualifications’.

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