In their strategic leadership role, the Trust chair is responsible for:

• ensuring the whole Board of Directors plays a full part in developing and determining the Trust’s vision, values, strategy and overall objectives to deliver organisational purpose and sustainability
• ensuring the Trust’s strategy aligns with the principles guiding the NHS and the NHS values
• ensuring the Board identifies the key risks the Trust faces in implementing its strategy; determines its approach and attitude to providing effective oversight of those risks and ensures there are prudent controls to assist in managing risk
• holding the chief executive to account for delivering the strategy and performance.

In their role shaping organisational culture and setting the right tone at the top, the Trust chair is responsible for:

• providing visible leadership in developing a healthy, open and transparent patient-centred culture for the organisation, where all staff have equality of opportunity to progress, the freedom to speak up is encouraged, and ensuring that this culture is reflected and modelled in their own and in the Board’s behaviour and decision-making
• leading and supporting a constructive dynamic within the Board, enabling grounded debate with contributions from all directors promoting the highest standards of ethics, integrity, probity and corporate governance throughout the organisation and particularly on the Board
• demonstrating visible ethical, compassionate and inclusive personal leadership by modelling the highest standards of personal behaviour and ensuring the Board follows this example ensuring that constructive relationships based on candour, trust and mutual respect exist between executive and non-executive directors
• developing effective working relationships with all the Board of Directors, particularly the chief executive, providing support, guidance and advice.

In their role developing the Board’s capacity and capability, the Trust chair is responsible for:

• ensuring the Board sees itself as a team, has the right balance and diversity of skills, knowledge and perspectives, and the confidence to challenge on all aspects of clinical and organisational planning, this includes:
  • regularly reviewing the Board’s composition and sustainability with the chief executive
  • considering succession planning for the Board, including attracting and developing future talent
  • considering the suitability and diversity of non-executive directors who are assigned as chairs and members of the Board’s committees, such that as far as possible they reflect the workforce and respective communities served by the Board
  • where necessary, leading in seeking the removal of non-executive directors and giving counsel in the removal of executive directors.
• leading on continual director development of skills, knowledge and familiarity with the organisation and health and social care system, to enable them to carryout their role on the Board effectively, including through:
  • induction programmes for new directors
  • ensuring annual evaluation of the Board performance, the Board’s committees, and the directors in respect of their Board contribution and development needs, acting on the results of these evaluations and supporting personal development planning
  • taking account of their own development needs through, for example, personal reflection, peer learning and mentoring/reverse mentoring as part of the wider NHS provider chair community.
• developing a Board that is genuinely connected to and assured about staff and patient experience, as demonstrated by appropriate feedback and other measures, including the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) and Equality Delivery System (EDS).

In their role as an ambassador, leading in developing relationships and partnership working, the chair is responsible for:

• promoting an understanding of the Boards role, and the role of non-executive and executive directors
• representing the organisation externally, developing and facilitating strong partnerships, and promoting collaborative, whole-system working through engagement with:
  • patients and the public all staff
  • key partners across public, private and voluntary sectors regulators
  • other chairs in the system and the wider NHS provider chair community, including where appropriate, through:
    • integrating with other care providers identifying, managing and sharing risks ensuring decisions benefit the local population,
    • prioritising the needs of the citizens served by the organisation at a system level
• ensuring that effective communication with stakeholders creates Board debate encompassing diverse views, and giving sufficient time and consideration to complex, contentious or sensitive issues.

In their role as governance lead for the Board, the chair is responsible for:

• making sure the Board operates effectively and understands its own accountability and compliance with its approved procedures – for example, meeting statutory duties relating to annual reporting
• personally doing the right thing, ethically and in line with the NHS values, demonstrating this to and expecting the same behaviour from the Board
• leading the Board in establishing effective and ethical decision-making processes
• setting an Integrated Board agenda relevant to the Trust’s current operating environment and taking full account of the important strategic issues and key risks it faces
• ensuring that the Board 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 Board, its committees, the council and senior management
• ensuring Board committees are properly constituted and effective.

In their role as facilitator of the Board, the chair is responsible for:

• providing the environment for agile debate that considers the big picture
• ensuring the Board collectively and individually applies sufficient challenge, balancing the ability to seize opportunities while retaining robust and transparent decision-making
• facilitating the effective contribution of all members of the Board, drawing on their individual skills, experience and knowledge and in the case of non- executive directors, their independence working with and supporting the Trust Board secretary in establishing and maintaining the Board’s annual cycle of business.

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

• ensuring all Board members are well briefed on external context – e.g. policy, integration, partnerships and societal trends – and this is reflected in Board debate
• fostering a culture of innovation and learning, by being outward-looking, promoting and embedding innovation, technology and transformation through the Board business and debate promoting academic excellence and research as a means of taking health and care services forward
• ensuring performance is accurately measured against constitutional and Care Quality Commission ‘well-led’ standards
• ensuring performance on equality, diversity and inclusion for all patients and staff is accurately measured and progressed against national frameworks, including WRES, WDES and EDS
• above all, ensuring the Board maintains an unrelenting interest in and focus on the continuous improvement and self-assessment of patient safety, experience and clinical outcomes.

• Prior experience as a non-executive director (any sector)
• Prior experience on an NHS Board (executive, non-executive or associate role)
• Professional qualification or equivalent experience
• Prior senior experience of complex organisations outside the NHS, i.e. private, voluntary or other public sector providers of  similar scale.