There is no love lost between chief executives and Eric Pickles.  The latter continues to take potshots about their salaries and maintains their role could either be subsumed into the leader's or shared with neighbours.

When it was suggested in an interview with The MJ last year that he had his ups and downs with SOLACE, the secretary of state semi-jokingly replied: ‘Ups? When were
there any ups?'

The lack of rapport between the professional chief executives' society and the Whitehall department responsible for their sector is a matter of great regret for SOLACE's new president, Mark Rogers, chief executive of Solihull MBC, who took on the society role in October.

He believes the society's members have a great deal to offer ministers and officials because of their professional expertise and their impartial advice.  Nor is it the case that the latter have a poor opinion of chief executives considering the number who end up filling top Whitehall jobs.

But Mark feels the relationship is, nonetheless, fractured.  As he says: ‘Chief executives are frustrated that their historic engagement with departments seems, largely, to have gone, especially with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

‘The local government sector is in a uniquely difficult period with Whitehall, characterised by the absence of a really meaningful relationship with the DCLG.  We don't believe anymore that we have influence or are listened to in the DCLG, or for that matter other departments like the Department for Education (DfE), while to many, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is still a closed door.'

He believes, justifiably, that the change in attitudes began with the coalition.  Eric Pickles has always made it clear that he sees the DCLG not as the department representing local government in Whitehall but as a department representing the public, often against councils.

As Mark adds: ‘We're used to having a two-way dialogue with ministers.  At the tail end of New Labour there was still felt to be value in talking to ministers and civil servants.  But the change has happened since 2010.  Eric Pickles arrived and signalled that the DCLG was less a sponsoring department and more a de-commissioning department.'

Furthermore, Whitehall itself has been considerably downsized in the past four years with the DCLG losing 40% of its staff and about to move to the Home Office.

Mark adds: ‘Local government is having to deal with a Whitehall which, itself is being reformed by Westminster.  One of our issues is the changing relationship between the civil service and ministers which, as a result, is affecting the relationship with local government.'

Paradoxically while relations between the sector and the DCLG, DfE and DWP are poor, those with the Department of Health and even the Treasury have improved.

‘The Department of Health has opened up after a long period of relative impenetrability and so has the Treasury,' Mark says.  ‘But departments where previously we had a more open and relaxed relationship, such as the DCLG and the DfE, have become far less receptive.  [Health secretary] Jeremy Hunt recognises that things cannot be achieved without local government but there is a different view from [education secretary] Michael Gove. It's understandable that, sometimes, we might appear confused!'

Mark adds: ‘We are repeatedly receiving signals from certain ministers saying we are not relevant but our message is "think of the consequences of what you're saying".

‘Chief executives are an integral part of independent local government and our communities expect us to reflect and address their needs and wishes.  If Westminster and Whitehall don't listen to local government then they don't listen to local people.

‘We are an essential conduit of local opinion.'

So how does SOLACE respond? Mark, who unexpectedly became the society's president a year earlier than planned due to president-elect Tony Hunter's move from North East Lincolnshire Council to head the Social Care Institute for Excellence, says there are four key themes.

‘Firstly, our job is to ensure we are front and centre on debates about professional leadership.

‘Secondly, we have to equip ourselves for a different future.  Managerialism as the dominant characteristic of practice will need to be replaced by a more entrepreneurial approach, but crucially underpinned by a strong and visible values-based leadership.

‘Thirdly, SOLACE is, of course, non-political, but chief executives do have a responsibility to speak the truth to those in power.  We can say things to ministers and civil servants without it automatically being politicised.

‘Finally, SOLACE's core purpose is to champion and develop the professional leadership of councils.  It is not our job to present political manifestos.  We are there to advise politicians to help them fulfil their ambitions.'

He adds: ‘This is a difficult game to stay in – but stay in it we must.  We need to make it clear that remaining engaged must not be confused with agreement.

‘We cannot just be placated.  We are entitled to say if a policy is not in the interest of the public and the locally elected politicians we serve.'

‘We need to use our membership more and I want more of our membership to step into the limelight and build our national leadership and reputation.'

As well as president Mark is also children's lead for the society.  He began his career in 1985 as a teacher, having qualified to teach pupils with special educational needs, and became a head teacher in 1994.
In 2001, he became the head of specialist services at Tameside MBC and was appointed as assistant director, inclusive communities, children and young people, for Stockport MBC in 2003.

In 2006 he joined Solihull MBC as director of children's services, becoming chief executive in 2007.

Bearing in mind the high profile of children's services and their propensity to damage an authority when they go wrong, he advises: ‘Every chief executive needs to know two things about their children's services: how well are they performing; and you are ultimately accountable – so don't leave it too late to know how you are doing!

‘I believe that we are reaching the point where we have to reinvent children's services. Government policy and reducing resources require us to re-think, on our own terms, what good looks like.'