Latest Posts
Small changes
August 13, 2020
Small changes and seemingly modest actions matter. In the same way that a butterfly flapping its wings in a Brazilian…
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Governing opera
August 12, 2020
Governing opera is an even more fluid endeavour than even the most extravagant operatic plot line, but there are real…
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Ready to legislate?
August 11, 2020
This bulletin looks at the dilemma facing the government about whether or not to bring change to the NHS by…
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Coming out again
August 10, 2020
“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Emma Lazarus The distasteful slip-up in the NHS People…
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Trusting millennials
August 7, 2020
The NHS People Plan, published in July, is an admirable statement of intent. As a response to the extraordinary circumstances…
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Environmental recovery
August 6, 2020
Finding opportunity during a pandemic isn’t easy, but a focus on the environment and the future of this planet could…
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Charity scrutiny
August 5, 2020
All charities face significant and ongoing challenges due to COVID-19. Research by the Institute of Fundraising, NCVO, and Charity Finance…
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Doing our homework
August 4, 2020
The extended spell of homeworking we’ve all been thrown into during the pandemic has led some to discover the immutable…
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Governors and boards
August 3, 2020
The NHS Constitution commits the NHS actively to encourage feedback from the public, patients and staff, to welcome it and…
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Pandemic communications
July 31, 2020
Communication has played a pivotal role throughout COVID-19. From government messages telling people to stay at home to businesses informing…
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Dudley integrates to innovate
July 30, 2020
Following our Defining Communities briefing, today we highlight how a well-coordinated integrated care model created partnership opportunities and helped to…
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Restarting play
July 29, 2020
Sport plays a vital role in the culture and psyche of the nation and fans everywhere are celebrating the recent…
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Does the NHS have a glass ceiling?
July 28, 2020
In the UK today, there remain long-standing and systemic barriers to career progression for women. Research shows that in order…
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Leading with empathy
July 27, 2020
Empathy – The power of mentally identifying oneself with (and so fully comprehending) a person or object of contemplation (OED)….
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A difficult privilege
July 24, 2020
In some ways, COVID-19 hasn’t changed the role of NHS chief executive at all. All the old accountabilities are still…
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A glimpse into the abyss – NHS finances
July 23, 2020
NHS debt and capital funding involve numbers so large that they usually qualify as ‘someone else’s problem’ – and that…
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A way forward for the performing arts
July 22, 2020
There aren’t many sectors that have been hit harder by COVID-19 than the arts. In a previous bulletin, we looked…
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Data sharing for light, not heat
July 21, 2020
During the pandemic, all organisations have had to find ways to work together. Having spoken for many years about data…
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Patient engagement
July 20, 2020
There is plenty of evidence to indicate that patient engagement can lead to improved health outcomes. In GGI’s view, this…
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Defining communities
July 17, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and the UK lockdown has separated us from each other like nothing else in our collective history….
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Cognisance
July 16, 2020
What is the role of leadership in modern governance? Is now the right time to think again? At GGI, we…
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Communitarianism
July 15, 2020
The idea of a tight community, where one checks in on an elderly neighbour, cooks hot meals for a poorly…
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Reducing health inequalities
July 14, 2020
If there are any positives to the COVID-19 pandemic – and that is a big if – the renewed focus…
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Staff reward
July 13, 2020
The NHS Long Term Plan and the Interim NHS People Plan both tacitly recognise that in order to provide the…
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Benchmarking
July 9, 2020
Targets on suspended…targets to return…new targets…targets to be revised – all sound like phrases to instil a mixture of music…
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Living in a VUCA world
July 8, 2020
GGI’s 2019 Festival Review featured an article entitled Strategy for a VUCA world by Lawrence Tallon, who is now Deputy…
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A new deal on regulation
July 7, 2020
The shock of a rapidly changing world has opened up much-needed space for new thinking. One vital but underexplored area…
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Triangulated assurance
July 6, 2020
How do I know that’s right? Is the data correct? How do I trust what you are saying? These are…
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Boardroom ethics
July 3, 2020
“To value is the act of cherishing something, holding it dear, and also the act of passing judgment upon the…
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A pivotal organisation
July 2, 2020
“The NHS, as the largest employer in this country, is an anchor institution in many communities.” Sir Simon Stevens At…
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Great boards
July 1, 2020
During COVID-19 it has been more important than ever that boards be at the top of their game – whether…
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Digital assurance
June 30, 2020
COVID-19 has shaken all of our foundations in a way not seen in recent living memory. While other pandemics have…
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Why stewardship is important now
June 29, 2020
The form of governance advocated by the Good Governance Institute (GGI) has always relied heavily on the concept of stewardship…
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Plan to collaborate
June 26, 2020
The NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) sets out an ambition that, by April 2021, there will be one strategic commissioner…
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Physiotherapy reboot
June 25, 2020
In a previous bulletin we’ve looked at how Connect Health have been supporting the NHS during the pandemic. One of…
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Housing association boards
June 24, 2020
Although the focus of the impact of COVID-19 has rightly been on health and social care, many other sectors that…
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Patient safety learning
June 23, 2020
Every year, avoidable unsafe care harms and kills thousands of people in the UK, with the NHS estimating that there…
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Engaging with the hard-to-reach
June 22, 2020
COVID-19 has seen an impressive response from the public sector, which has adapted quickly to continue providing essential services. However,…
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Systemic racism
June 19, 2020
The tragic death of George Floyd has reignited the debate on systemic racism in the US and across the world….
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Treasure your chief operating officer
June 18, 2020
As the NHS ramps up its services and starts to treat significant numbers of elective patients again, hospitals and services…
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System thinking at Hastings community hub
June 17, 2020
GGI’s bulletins have focused largely on health and social care issues throughout the coronavirus crisis. But of course there are…
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Recovering risk management
June 16, 2020
The rapid deployment of the Nightingale hospitals around the country to address the coronavirus threat is a great example of…
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Reimagining the future of work
June 15, 2020
COVID-19 has had – and will continue to have – a significant impact on work and employment. Across Europe, a…
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Unrecognised system risk: the care sector
June 12, 2020
COVID-19 has amplified and hastened many underlying issues. In so many areas, what seemed to be taking years to progress…
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Digital nurses
June 11, 2020
Before COVID-19, considerable thought was already being given to the concept of digital nursing. Last year Health Education England and…
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Reinventing: the arts
June 10, 2020
COVID-19 has had a devastating global impact on the arts as theatres, galleries and concert halls were forced to closed…
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How to make COVID-19 transformations stick
June 9, 2020
One, almost universal comment on change during the first phase of the pandemic has been: “we managed to achieve things…
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Succession and the C-suite
June 8, 2020
For a number of years, there’s been quite an industry growing to support effective board-level succession planning. COVID19 has shone…
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Solidarity with BAME people in our communities
June 5, 2020
Last month GGI issued a bulletin dedicated to the impact of COVID-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) NHS…
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Citizen engagement
June 4, 2020
In a previous bulletin, we noted how the COVID-19 crisis had emphasised the need for boards to engage their stakeholders…
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Waiting matters
June 3, 2020
Waiting times matter to patients because living in pain and discomfort can have a serious impact on education and employment…
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Assurance and the dog that didn’t bark
June 2, 2020
‘The survivors of existential crises have huge wisdom, won at high cost, about what we need in order to endure…
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The Nolan principles
June 1, 2020
You won’t find many people who disagree with the Nolan Principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership….
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The future of health care estate
May 29, 2020
The delivery of primary care has seen rapid changes in response to COVID-19, as technology-enabled care has been employed to…
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Could COVID-19 improve strategic commissioning?
May 28, 2020
The context and drivers of health and care integration efforts are well-stated in response to demographic changes, resource constraints, and…
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Getting the country back to work
May 27, 2020
Our work with non-executives has kept us in touch with boards of all types across the country and we’ve come…
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Three new priorities for NHS audit committees
May 26, 2020
NHS trust boards have been asked to lighten the load on executives as much as possible during the first and…
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Time for kindness
May 22, 2020
This week (18-24 May) is Mental Health Awareness Week. This year’s theme is kindness – a particularly appropriate choice as…
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Severe mental illness: what all NHS boards need to understand
May 21, 2020
Mental health problems are among the main causes of overall disease burden in the UK. In England, an estimated 551,000…
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Leading nurses
May 20, 2020
It feels particularly apt that the World Health Organisation designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife to…
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Developing the board for the new
May 19, 2020
Many leaders are wisely re-thinking what board development needs to look like in future. The new world of complex challenges…
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Flexible property use
May 15, 2020
GGI believes that the three pillars of recovery from the coronavirus crisis are testing, health and safety, and shielding vulnerable…
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Doctor’s orders
May 13, 2020
The role of medical director or chief medical officer in an NHS organisation is one of the most challenging and…
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Audit committees
May 12, 2020
The name of Florence Nightingale, whose birthday it is today (12 May), has been in the news during the coronavirus…
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Coronanomics
May 11, 2020
Professor Mervyn King was appointed by South African President Nelson Mandela to develop governance frameworks from 1992. The King Commission…
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COVID-19 and black, Asian and minority ethnic NHS staff
May 7, 2020
Gender, underlying health and age are all factors that can make a person more vulnerable to COVID-19. A fourth factor…
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Health and Safety: non-clinical staff
May 6, 2020
COVID-19 has galvanised boards due to the short-term threats it presents to both staff and incomes. Now as the UK…
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Testing and tracing
May 5, 2020
As the world tentatively moves towards the recovery phase of the coronavirus pandemic, there is almost universal agreement that testing…
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Virtual NHS board meeting – updated advice
May 4, 2020
In March, GGI published advice on holding virtual board meetings. One month after most NHS boards took their meetings online,…
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Risky business
May 1, 2020
As NHS boards turn their thoughts from addressing the immediate crisis towards restoration and recovery, GGI recommends devoting a board…
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Barriers to digital adoption
April 30, 2020
Over the past month, the phrase ‘the new normal’ has become increasingly commonplace as the NHS embraced partnership working and…
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Newspeak – language of the new normal
April 29, 2020
One positive to emerge from the era of the virus is its challenge to the way the public sector describes…
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When do we need finance committees?
April 28, 2020
Today we ask an important and perhaps surprising question: do NHS boards really need finance committees right now? The only…
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CEOs and chairs in perfect harmony
April 27, 2020
The new normal will need new leadership. Yet the people in charge remain the same. In an earlier bulletin we…
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All hands on deck
April 24, 2020
When GGI Executive Director of Delivery Darren Grayson was asked to support a local health care system to rapidly escalate…
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Safeguarding wellbeing of NHS frontline staff
April 23, 2020
When it comes to its staff, the NHS has always talked a good game. However, this rhetoric has not always…
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What only the chair can do
April 22, 2020
GGI is producing a series of board assurance prompts (BAPs) to help NHS boards address some of the challenges presented…
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Pandemic ethics
April 21, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic presents some new and challenging ethical questions to front-line NHS staff and the boards governing them. Recognising…
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Quality committees and COVID-19
April 20, 2020
GGI is committed to providing practical advice to health and social care organisations about modern, proportionate governance throughout the coronavirus…
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Easing the burden on the NHS
April 17, 2020
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, GGI is offering its advisory service to NHS boards and other public sector organisations…
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What is the value of a board?
April 16, 2020
During the pandemic boards have stepped back so that executive teams can focus on the here-and-now crisis. NHS Boards are…
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Stewardship
April 15, 2020
The last month has not been pretty in governance terms. A crisis on this scale is too easily seen as…
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Changing roles in a crisis
April 14, 2020
By their nature, crises are unpredictable. When that crisis is a pandemic that seemingly strikes at random, regardless of any…
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Is your board asking the right cybersecurity questions?
April 9, 2020
Today’s guest post has been written by Andrew Fitzmaurice, CEO of Templar Executives, a cybersecurity advisory services and solutions company…
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Good governance in business continuity and emergency planning
April 8, 2020
During these weeks of lockdown we have held conversations with NHS boards to discuss their response to COVID-19, looking for…
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Stakeholder engagement is central to tackling COVID-19
April 7, 2020
In our conversations with NHS boards about their responses to COVID-19, GGI has been looking to identify practical guidance and…
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What not to drop
April 6, 2020
In our conversations with NHS boards about their responses to COVID-19, we have been looking to identify practical guidance we…
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Minute-writing in a time of crisis
April 3, 2020
In our conversations with NHS boards about their responses to COVID-19, we have been looking to identify practical guidance and…
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Short, effective board papers
April 2, 2020
In previous GGI briefings, we have addressed how the coronavirus crisis has placed extra pressure on NHS boards. And yet,…
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Board assurance prompt for the COVID-19 crisis
April 1, 2020
In a guest GGI briefing on 26 March, Dr Usman Khan stressed the importance of the non-executive director (NED) role…
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Tackling COVID-19 with technology
March 31, 2020
As part of our work on NHS board responses to COVID-19, GGI was keen to find out what other NHS…
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Meeting the new normal
March 30, 2020
One week after the UK went into lockdown, we update our advice on the new world of virtual NHS board…
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Thank you NHS
March 27, 2020
It may be that the two most important words during the coronavirus crisis are ‘thank you’. From the board’s perspective,…
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The NHS non-executive in times of crisis
March 26, 2020
This bulletin was contributed by Dr Usman Khan, former chair of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust who has recently…
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Boards remain accountable
March 25, 2020
A wise chairman once said: ‘Don’t look for the edges of your accountability; you are accountable for it all’. Sage…
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NHS board etiquette for changed times
March 24, 2020
As part of our work to support the NHS and promote effective governance in times of crisis, the Good Governance…
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Conducting virtual NHS board meetings
March 23, 2020
As part of our work to support the NHS and promote effective governance in times of crisis, the Good Governance…
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