Reviews creating value | 18 October 2023

GGI's October webinar will focus on a discussion on the theme: Reviews creating value.

The event will take place on Wednesday 18 October, from 08.30 to 09.30 and will be run virtually on Zoom.

We will be joined by Dr. Anita Donley, consultant physician, Stephen Marshall, university registrar, and Grenville Page, non-executive director of various organisations in sectors including housing and healthcare.

Every corporate governance code requires independent, external reviews. But why? And, more to the point, how? Reviews are often expensive and always take up a significant amount of senior time. ‘To have something on the shelf, just in case’ isn’t the reason to conduct a review. It is about disturbing groupthink and giving a board time to reflect on how they work and whether they could do it better. It's very different to a regulator review.

We see reviews as a valuable resource – people tell a third-party independent reviewer things they would never tell each other. The art is to wrap this insight into acceptable messages that are designed to help an organisation improve. But at the end of the day, it is down to the organisation itself to get the most out of the review.

At this webinar we will explore how different sectors approach the commissioning and implementation of reviews – what has worked and what hasn’t. We will explore the difference between regulatory reviews and independent reviews and look at transferable lessons between sectors.

Reviews are an ordinary part of good governance – join us and share your experiences and thoughts.

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

We will be joined by:

Dr. Anita Donley OBE

Dr. Donley is a consultant physician who has chaired NHS organisations, carried out multiple reviews as well as sat on several national investigations including the Lowermoor Water Pollution Incident (Camelford, Cornwall) and the Chief Medical Officer’s inquiry into the care of suspected internal drug traffickers. She is a trustee at Imperial Health Charity and the former independent chair of the Essex Health and Care STP. She is also a former clinical vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Stephen Marshall, partner, Six Ravens Consulting LLP

Stephen Marshall is founding partner at Six Ravens Consulting, which specialises in corporate affairs and the critical issues faced by senior leaders. His professional interests include dynamic governance and statutory regulation, leadership and strategy development, education management and student-facing services.

Steve is an experienced non-executive, including directorship of a multi-academy trust. He is current chair of Bridewell Gardens, piloting social and therapeutic horticulture for mental health recovery. In his executive career, he was company secretary and clerk to the board of governors at several major universities, most recently University of the Arts London, the World Top 2 in its field.

Grenville Page, non-executive director and independent consultant

Grenville is a highly experienced, commercially minded finance, business and governance professional and senior leader with a wealth of board-level, audit committee and change experience as an executive, a non-executive director/trustee and business consultant gained across the public (local government, NHS, central government), charities / social enterprises, housing and education sectors.

Grenville is a CIPFA-qualified accountant, having started his career in local government before moving into the NHS and then the civil service. He moved away from full-time employment over 12 years ago to develop a portfolio career working across sectors in various roles.

He has held finance director positions in health, a social enterprise and an independent local authority-owned social care company and has now accumulated decades of non-executive and trustee experience.

Grenville is committed to contributing to organisational success and sustainability, ensuring best-practice governance and financial management, and he is passionate about cross-sector collaboration and innovation to drive better services and outcomes for the people we serve.

Grenville’s current non-executive / independent member roles across the north-west are:

• The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and chair of the audit committee
• Interim chair at Viaduct Care CIC, the GP federation for Stockport
• Great Places Housing Group and chair of the audit committee
• Independent chair of the audit committee of the Greater Manchester Combined authority
• Independent chair of the audit committee of Oldham Council
• Chair of True Learning, a multi-academy trust with five schools based in Cheshire and Derbyshire

He is also an independent consultant, largely working with charities / social enterprises, and academies and schools.