As Jo Miller’s presidency of SOLACE with its focus on equalities and women’s rights ends, Jessica Crowe reports from a recent workshop on the best way to continue making progress

A s we round off Jo Miller’s presidency of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), with its welcome focus on equalities and, in particular, championing women’s rights to be heard at all the top tables, it’s worth asking how this focus will be maintained under the next president. A group of women from different levels and organisations across local government got together recently to discuss this and in particular how we can better support women managers’ career progression across the sector. When 78% of our sector’s workforce are women but only 33% of chief executives, there’s a barrier somewhere.