Vicki Bates

Vicki Bates joined Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council as its Monitoring Officer in October 2019, having spent 17 years as a solicitor and senior leader in private practice law firms in Manchester.   Vicki joined Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council after advising the council during 2018 and 2019 on the collapse of Carillion.  Vicki’s remit now covers Legal Services, Democratic and Electoral Services and Information Governance. 

Since arriving in Stockport Vicki has overseen the strategic upskilling and investment to save into the legal team, growing it to 50 plus colleagues, leading to a reduction in spend on external legal advisors and a better retention and recruitment rate and reduction of locum spend.  Vicki has also led on the implementation of a trainee and paralegal programme in the legal team, the introduction of a work experience programme (now consistently oversubscribed) and were the first legal team in Greater Manchester to offer T Level placements to two under 18 year olds.  The legal team were highly commended in the Legal Team of the Year, Lawyers in Local Government Awards (LLG) 2024 and won the LLG Award for Excellence in Training Award in 2025. 

In 2021 Vicki led the successful integration of the Democratic and Electoral Services teams into one shared service team increasing resilience and efficiency.  In 2023 Vicki took over the lead of the Information Governance team and also became the council’s Deputy SIRO. 

Vicki won the LGC Workforce Head of Service Award in 2024 for her approach to culture change and workplace wellbeing.  Vicki is a non-executive Director for the council’s public realm company, the council’s strategic lead on Wellbeing, Prevent and our Armed Forces Covenant and a Board Member on the North West Legal Consortium.   

Vicki’s most important role is being a mum and biggest cheerleader for her 16 year old daughter.