As voting opens for the election of the new Solace president, candidates Trevor Holden and Jo Miller make their case for your vote.

The candidates have been listed in alphabetical order.

Trevor Holden is chief executive of Luton BC

A rare process indeed is in progress right now: an election to the position of group president of Solace, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

The possibility of elections to the post, and the 20 or so other Solace positions that are appointed to each year, is of course well established under the organisation’s constitution, however in practice has rarely been actively encouraged.

Mostly, appointments have been agreed without any consultation of the wider membership. And, in fact, there has never before been an election to the position of president.

My candidacy changes this, and for the good reason that we need to stimulate a new agenda within Solace. This is that we should strive to be seen as the go-to organisation for policy development and innovation in local government and not in any way as the ‘trade union’ of senior officers.

My goal is to make our excellent society more relevant to its members, and ultimately residents across the United Kingdom, by working more effectively across the tiers of local and national government and partner agencies.

That may sound orthodox, but I am far from an establishment candidate. I have no great regard for hierarchy and do not see leadership as the preserve of grey people in grey suits.

Our members have the privilege of being in leadership positions in the public sector at a particularly challenging moment in history.

Local authority senior officers are the link between communities, councillors and central government. We are the people who drive economies of place, and innovations in the care system and housing.

Accordingly, it is our responsibility to deliver at pace efficiencies and economies of scale for the benefit of citizens – and it is my passionate belief is that we could be doing this much more effectively.

Our priority must be to drive collaboration across projects at sector level, and obliging our supply chain to work together, rather than developing a plethora of individual solutions.

Take for example our relationship with the Local Government Association (LGA). The mantra for some time in our sector has been ‘working more closely to drive savings’, yet, on a very straightforward level, the LGA holds its annual conference in May, and ours takes place in October.

Imagine what we could save and achieve by co-locating these events: delivering a real agenda of common themes through collaborative working, and with two clear and distinct voices.

Within our organisation there are challenges too. Solace plays a key role in the National Graduate Scheme, and runs its own mid-career Springboard and Business Partners programmes. Yet all of these run independently of each other.

Talent development is critical, and there is much of it at our disposal, but local authorities do tend to operate as 300+ different organisations. By joining these schemes up we can get more people involved in growing our leaders of tomorrow across the local, central and devolution space.

Meanwhile our regional groups are sparsely populated. I pledge to reinvigorate the local Solace groups to ensure district authorities can gain a stronger voice and better influence our approach to sustainable transformation and the skills agenda.

Voting closes on 5 October 2016 and I urge members to be more ambitious for our society and our sector on behalf of our residents and communities.

Jo Miller is chief executive of Doncaster Council

I’ve been chief executive at Doncaster for four and a half years and have lead this place with the elected mayor from one that has been in significant government intervention to one that is predominately performing well, albeit we are very much a work in progress!

That journey has had at the heart of its route map enabling collaborative civic leadership, empowering our people to be the best they can be, and as a partner, placing ourselves as a first amongst equals garnering the whole resource of the place to deliver the best outcomes for our people. I call it ‘Team Doncaster’.

Prior to being appointed by government and council, I was deputy chief executive at the LGA, with a focus on policy, public affairs and local government improvement. Before that I’ve worked in various roles in Yorkshire and the North West. The wide geography and breadth of the roles I’ve covered leaves me well placed to lead and direct strategic policy activity as referred to in the Solace presidency role, and with networks that span the UK.

I’ve been, and continue to be, an active Solace member and advocate for a number of years, contributing to the policy board, many conference and training days, mentoring and support to new colleagues and written various articles and thought leadership pieces. I’ve acted as a judge and sponsor on numerous local government awards, promoting the very best the sector has to offer.

I believe that Solace has an important voice in the debate about the future shape of public services in this country and we should ensure that it is heard. It is also up to us to shape future leaders and I would want to use the president role to articulate and shape both, learning more from our colleagues across devolved administrations to shape future public services fit for people.

It’s important that Solace isn’t seen as a clique. As president, I’d want to use the collaborative, distributive leadership style I use in the day job to ensure that every geographical area is heard and every member can contribute. We have great resources in our membership and we can use them to significant effect. I’m convinced this is an area for us to capitalise upon.

I want to build on Mark Rogers’ excellent work and form a strong partnership with the Solace chair. Together with the wider board structure we can make sure that, as the uniquely placed senior local government managers association, we are the go to place for thoughtful policy influence, a leadership offer par excellence, the membership organisation that one must be a member of, with links to other professional associations that are second to none.

As senior managers we are at the heart of effective place leadership. We have a story to tell, an offer to make and a generation to inspire. As Solace president, I’d like to further that agenda.