26 March 2021 – NHS Non-Executive Directors webinar

This week’s session opened in conversation with special guest Lena Samuels, Chair at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

Lena said: “Being a NED on an ambulance service when we’re used to working at scale across six or so counties with many other partners meant that transitioning into the role of an ICS chair was quite easy to do. NEDs are about bringing strategic insight, about helping their own organisations to shape the direction of travel and then hold the rest of the board to account but it is also about focusing on what good patient care and patient outcomes look like. I do think there is scope for this within the ICS environment. […]

“You can only collaborate with people and be in partnership with them if you have a common understanding which allows you to get to common goals and appreciate where they are coming from and what their challenges are. When you get to common goals you can begin to understand what common delivery might look like and where the intersections are and how you are creating blended care pathways. So you really need to have these conversations, make time for them and not take a step back – be proactive about it. […]

“I know that NEDs have an amazing amount of skills knowledge and expertise to offer. Many by the time they come into a NED role, have been very senior in other organisations. It is about looking to each individual organisation and getting them to channel the offer of individual NEDs into their system. Organisations can offer a NED with expertise in a particular area to come in and join a working group to really advance that agenda and manage that evolution going forwards.”

Also overheard at the webinar:

“The pandemic has exposed the inequalities in our communities. It’s often the disadvantaged communities who do not engage or come forward to communicate about their health care needs, propagating the vicious circle. There are also the risk big players within ICSs that overshadow the requirements of communities with no or low voices. How do we address this?”

“I have concerns that we have our inner city problems but then have large rural areas that can’t access digital easily and have poor travel links so can’t get into services easily. We do have community centres but are currently in the process of reducing two community hospitals to just one and this has caused controversy as just doing this has created problems with access as people have to travel 40 minutes to get to this centre. This is in a relatively affluent county so it is hard to know how to tackle these issues.”

These meetings are by invitation and are open to all NHS non-executives directors, chairs and associate non-executive directors of NHS providers. Others may attend by special invitation. For further details, visit our website https://www.good-governance.org.uk/events/.

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