Goodwin Hannah

Board Development

GoodwinHannah has been selected by the Department of Health as a chosen provider for developing the boards of Primary Care Trusts; and also has been selected by Monitor, the Independent Regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts, as a provider for piloting the development of foundation trust non-executive directors. 

Our work now includes the development of PCT cluster boards and clinical commissioning groups.  

What we bring

• Extensive experience of working with boards of Primary Care Trusts, Foundation Trusts and NHS Trusts to improve their effectiveness.
   
• An approach based not only on technical and system issues but also on exploration of functions and roles, coupled with the importance of developing effective relationships as the foundation for fostering open debate and constructive challenge.
   
• An emphasis on how to achieve an effective unitary board recognising the distinctive role and contribution of executive and non-executive directors.
   
• Considerable personal and consultancy experience of organisational and systems working at strategic and operational levels.
   
• Extensive personal experience as chief executives, chairs and non-executive directors of numerous boards allowing us to bring our own insight, interpretation and judgement to your local context and relationships.
   
• Experience from undertaking numerous sensitive inquiries and reviews of board-level governance issues in a range of organisations. 
   
• Considerable coaching experience of chief executives, board members and clinical professionals.

How we do it

• We place a strong emphasis on diagnosis because we firmly believe that each board is different and individual board members hold the key to most of the issues that their board needs to address to improve its effectiveness.
   
• Our diagnostic will focus on issues such as the operating context and its challenges, relationships, board vision and leadership, performance and the achievement of board objectives, the tone and style of board metings, and the consduct of board business.  
   
• Our approach is twofold, combining the key learning from the literature on effective board working with the day-to-day reality, pressure and decision-making of your board’s business. We use best practice frameworks derived from the private, public and third sectors as the basis for boards to explore their own performance, and internal and external effectiveness.
   
• We bring extensive experience of working with boards over periods of time, helping with their transition into new leadership roles. This is done by, among other things, placing an increased emphasis on external relationships as the basis for the board’s role as a leader in the local health system including engagement with the public and clinical professionals.
   
• We believe strongly in a developmental and constructive approach to improving board effectiveness. Our aim is always to build the confidence of board members whilst at the same time addressing critical issues.

What you can expect

• An approach which recognises that each board is different and has its own particular development needs and individual challenges.  In particular we will work with your board to achieve a greater understanding of the changes needed to become a successful leadership  organisation by short and longer-term action planning focusing on improving board effectiveness.

• A mark of our success is that we have an ongoing relationship with a number of boards who prefer to work with us to not only help them understand their ongoing development requirements but also review their progress in achieving success. We believe that this developmental approach is a distinctive feature of the GoodwinHannah offer.