The relevance of the law, legal fluency and legal skills in an NHS trust

This webinar will be led by experienced non-executive director Kate Fitzgerald, who will draw on her professional and personal experience to talk about the role of the law and the skill of the lawyer as it pertains to non-executive directors and governance. As a starting point it is important to understand how statute law is drafted and the consensus nature of developing statute law. So, the law mostly represents a working, practical approach rather than an ideal. However, law gives certainty and can act as a baseline for risk.

Kate will also talk about the risks of large, complex public sector organisations without having a legal department and thus a senior voice that can offer a legal perspective. One practical aspect of this is that many trusts without internal legal resource can make mistakes in engaging legal advice or in properly interrogating legal advice when it arrives. Kate will test the idea that all NHS boards should include a lawyer.

GGi’s national NHS NED and independent members development webinars are open to all NHS non-executive directors, chairs, independent members and associate non-executive directors of NHS providers.