4 February 2021 – Mental Health Network – governance during the COVID-19 pandemic webinar

Overheard during the webinar:

“The impact of domestic violence is emerging in young people, and there is a risk of not fully considering the impact of this and the increased demand for mental health services. It is a critically important topic to keep on all of our radars.”

“We received a letter from a police deputy about concerns over increased demand, with data showing police use of 136 up 20%, 135 up 63% and mental health assessments in police custodies up 60%. We are looking forward to a productive meeting later in the month to discuss these figures. It is worth being proactive on this and ensuring these relationships are strong?”

“Staff refusing the COVID-19 vaccine has been discussed at ethics committees. It is currently voluntary, which makes sense especially when it was just about preventing the individual from catching it, but with new data showing hope for an impact on reducing transmission rates there is a discussion which needs to be had around staff not accepting the vaccine and their role in protecting patients.”

During a debate on the authority of boards over the coming years as system-level changes take place:

“We face the front end of the debate around sharing chief executives. As a board the one big decision they make is the appointment of the CEO and NEDs. There was strong drive from NHSEI and the STP to appoint a shared CEO, but we feel it was important to be strong and appoint an independent CEO.”

“I am a NED on both acute and mental health trust boards, and there is strategic intent to bring the organisations together. The logic for this is to help understand each other’s difficulties and better align.”

The Department for Health and NHS E/I have different priorities, potentially with DHSC more focused on local authority alignment than NHS E/I. There are also different preferences across regions, with one regional director preferring large hospital chains, and this preference will have influence. I think the general direction is heading the same way, but at different speeds and with different priorities.”

These meetings are by invitation only. 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