3 February - Mental Health Network webinar - governance during the COVID-19 pandemic

Topics covered in this week’s session included system-level risk strategies and the mandatory vaccine reversal.

Overheard during the discussion:

“There is a lot of anger on a matter of principle around how NHS staff are treated, and a wider issue of how the government are treating the health service. People are feeling alienated from the broader NHS, rather than their specific trust or team, but it is important to acknowledge this as it does have an impact on the morale of staff.”

“The U-turn showed a lack of understanding of culture, and impacted significantly on staff. […] The collateral damage at every point into an already over stretched system is unacceptable.”

“Whilst we are in difficult times, we are continuing to consultant and engage with staff at all levels, and try to respond authentically and honestly, alongside sharing good news where possible.”

The discussion around governance and risk in systems focused on:

• risks you tolerate and risks you choose to take
• viewing risks you tolerate in different ways, for example at an organisation level, provider collaborative level, as a system and at the population level
• risk appetite, and levels of risk appetite across the system

Also overheard:

“We have been working around risk as an enabler of cooperation, and considering different ways of using risk registers. For example on risk in acute providers, you can see where risk interacts with different providers and help to hold shared risk and solve problems.”

“There are different levels of risk within organisations and there may be difficulties at ICS level to agree a tolerable risk appetite. However within a collaborative we developed a risk sharing element of the contract, and between the six providers we had to agree and review how this works when we have different roles and responsibilities within the collaborative. This is a mindset shift in how risk is managed.”

“It’s interesting to reflect on the range of risk appetites in systems, and the different places and levels they will be at. Risk assessment is also key, for example the need for risk assessment of the move to mandatory vaccinations and the impact of this. It will take time to remove competitive behaviours that have grown over the last 30 years, and are difficult to strip away overnight. The ambitions of systems are correct, but the behaviours within can be difficult.”

These meetings are by invitation only. For further details, visit our events page.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about these webinars, please contact: events@good-governance.org.uk