THE ROLE OF THE CHAIR

The role of Chair is broken down into five key domains – Strategy, People, Partnerships, Governance and Accountability, and a Focus on outcomes. All the Chair’s activities and decisions must be driven by the NMC’s values of being fair, kind, collaborative and ambitious for the NMC and the people it serves.

Strategy

In their strategic leadership role, the Chair is responsible for:

  • ensuring the Council shapes and oversees achievement of the NMC’s vision, values, and strategy by regulating, supporting and influencing effectively
  • ensuring the Council identifies the key risks facing the NMC, determines its approach and attitude to those risks and ensures the necessary controls are in place to enable them to be managed accordingly

People

By setting the right tone for the Council, the Chair is responsible for helping to shape organisational culture by:

  • providing visible leadership in the development of a healthy, open and transparent culture for the organisation and ensuring that this, and the NMC’s values - fair, kind, collaborative and ambitious - are modelled in their own behaviour and the behaviour of the Council and in its decision making
  • demonstrating and promoting the Seven Principles of Public Life and the highest standards of ethics, integrity and probity
  • demonstrating compassionate leadership, in particular by providing support, guidance and advice to the Council, Chief Executive and the Executive team

Partnerships

In their role as ambassador, taking a leading role in the development of relationships and partnership working, the Chair is responsible for:

  • Externally: representing the organisation, developing and facilitating strong partnerships, and promoting collaborative, whole-system working through engagement with the four administrations, stakeholders, partners, professionals on our register, the public and people who use services
  • Internally: representing the Council to colleagues across the organisation, being a visible and accessible leader
  • In all partnership working ensuring that Council debate is informed by the views of partners, stakeholders, professionals on our register, the public and colleagues

Governance / Accountability

In their role as leader of the Council, the Chair is responsible for:

  • ensuring the Council works effectively and efficiently, operates within its regulatory framework and complies with its obligations as a registered charity
  • making sure the Council collectively and individually fulfils its role, challenges appropriately, and reflects the NMC’s values in all of its actions and decisions
  • ensuring the Council is focused on the important strategic issues and key risks it faces, taking into account the NMC's current operating environment
  • ensuring that the Council receives accurate, high quality, timely and clear information, that the related assurance systems are fit for purpose and that there is a good flow of information between the Council, its committees and senior management
  • ensuring the Council has the right balance and diversity of skills and expertise
  • leading on the continual development of Council members, Associates and their knowledge of the organisation and the wider environment within which it operates
  • guiding, supporting and holding the Chief Executive and the Executive team to account for delivering the NMC’s strategic objectives

Focus on outcomes

In their role as catalyst for change, the Chair is responsible for:

  • being ambitious in the pursuit of the NMC’s core purpose of protecting the public and promoting confidence in the professions and professional regulation, ensuring that this ambition is reflected in all of the Council’s work and the conversations they have as Chair
  • driving the achievement of outcomes by holding others to account for delivery
  • ensuring Council is well briefed on all relevant issues – g. policy, regulatory reform, partnerships and societal trends – and that this is reflected in Council debate
  • fostering a culture of innovation and learning, by being outward-looking, promoting innovation and use of technology, and embedding sustainable change through the Council’s business and debate
  • actively pursuing improvements in equality, diversity and inclusion in all the NMC’s work
  • ensuring the Council maintains an unrelenting focus on NMC continuous improvement.
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The Chair