The assurance agenda | 29 September 2023

As part of its mission to promote good governance, GGI has been hosting facilitated virtual meetings to give NHS non-executive directors an opportunity to share their concerns, challenges and ideas as we rethink the future of health and social care.

The goal is to collectively think about the role NEDs play as part of the controlling mind of their organisations, to discuss immediate safeguarding issues and to ensure we all learn from this experience to assure better outcomes for citizens in the future. If you would like to join this meeting, please email events@good-governance.org.uk.

ABOUT:

The pressure is on for all NHS organisations, with performance and money predominating. As GGI has been exploring in recent articles and webinars, this heightens how critical board assurance is. We also believe that the very nature of assurance has stepped up too.

This webinar will look at how this changes the work of NHS NEDs and, as always, is a chance to share views and ideas in a solely NHS NEDs peer-to-peer group. In a discussion led by Professor Suzanne Shale, an experienced NHS NED and a recent hospice chair, GGI will be presenting some of our latest thinking on where assurance has gone wrong. Along with some of the practical things that NEDS should be doing to disturb groupthink and both shape and test the assurance that comes to NHS boards. This will include:

• NEDs' role in setting the assurance agenda
• avoiding confusing assurance and performance
• should ‘deep-dives’ become routine?
• service visits – are we missing a trick?

The format of the meeting will be a short 'In conversation with ...' to start the dialogue, followed by a peer-to-peer discussion welcoming feedback, questions and comment.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This meeting is by invitation only and is open to all NHS non-executive directors, chairs and associate non-executive directors of NHS providers. Others may attend by special invitation. For further details, comments, questions and suggestions please contact: events@good-governance.org.uk.

To register for this event, please click the link below:

We hope that you will join us for what will be an interesting and insightful discussion.

Should you have any questions, please contact events@good-governance.org.uk.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Professor Suzanne Shale is an independent ethics consultant, working with a diverse range of organisations across health and social care, the third sector, and the criminal justice system.

She has a long-standing interest in patient and service user experience of their health conditions, health care, and health care harm, and has published research in all of these areas, as well as leading collaborative projects in service improvement.

She is a Member of the General Medical Council, chairs the London Policing Ethics Panel and is a member of the National Policing Ethics Committee. She is the Chair of Royal Trinity Hospice. Previous roles include having been a member of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel advising on NHS service reorganisations, chairing the national charity Action against Medical Accidents, and chairing a not-for-profit mental health provider.