Director of Legal and Democratic Services (Monitoring Officer)

Our Story:

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’.

Your Impact:

You will be joining an organisation with a clear, shared ambition to strengthen performance and deliver impactful outcomes for its residents. There is a strong sense of purpose and collaboration, underpinned by visible leadership from the Chief Executive and a refreshed senior leadership team. Alongside this, the Council is facing the financial challenges common across local government, with a clear requirement to deliver significant savings, transformation and service change. This creates a genuinely exciting opportunity for the incoming Director of Legal & Democratic Services, positioning the function at the heart of enabling confident decision-making, supporting transformation and shaping how the organisation evolves for the future. Within this context, Legal and Governance plays a critical role, offering a platform to set direction, embed a modern governance approach and influence how the organisation operates at the highest level.

Hours: 37 per week

Your Contributions:

• Act as the Council’s statutory Monitoring Officer, ensuring lawful, transparent and effective decision-making in line with constitutional and regulatory requirements.
• Lead and develop the Legal and Democratic Services functions, delivering high-quality, responsive and forward-thinking support to Members and senior officers.
• Serve as the principal adviser on governance, ethics and standards, building trusted relationships with Members and the Corporate Leadership Team.
• Drive the continuous improvement of governance arrangements, strengthening processes, assurance and organisational accountability.
• Contribute as a key member of the senior leadership team, shaping organisational direction and enabling confident, well-informed strategic decisions.

For more information about this exciting opportunity, read our candidate information pack attached.

Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 44 days per year (including bank holidays), with the option to purchase an additional four-days of unpaid leave for our Annual Christmas Closedown
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites
• Flexible working arrangements
• Extensive employee benefits platform including discounted shopping, car leasing, gym memberships, wellbeing hub and Employee Assistance Programme.

Next Steps:

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact our retained consultants at Penna:

• Kelly Ridley - 07709 512415 or kelly.ridley@penna.com
• James Miller - 0 7701 233159 or james.miller@penna.com
• Rachael Morris - 07840 711217 or rachael.morris@penna.com

Closing date: 23:59pm on Sunday 12th July

Technical Interviews: Friday 17th July

Assessment Centre: Thursday 23rd July

Appointments Committee Final Interviews: Thursday 30th July

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – execapplications@penna.com

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!