Vacancy -- Independent Member (Community) – Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (UHB) is an organisation with a budget of just over £1 billion. It was established in 2009 as an integrated Local Health Board responsible for planning and delivering a wide range of primary, community and secondary health services to the populations of Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, and Torfaen. The Health Board also has the responsibility to work with partners to promote and improve the health and well-being of its local population. Taken together with an estimate of the patients living in South Powys and other areas that are served by the UHB for acute services, the patient population served is close to 600,000. The University Health Board commissions a broad range of services secured through a number of contracts and contracting arrangements with English, Welsh and Third Sector Providers.

The University Health Board has three acute hospitals providing a range of inpatient and outpatient services; these are the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport; Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr in Ystrad Mynach and Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny. There are also a range of other hospitals and facilities across Health Board area.

The University Health Board employs 400 General Practitioners and Salaried GPs providing general medical services from 88 General Practices. Supporting these are 214 practice nurses, 145 health care support workers and a number of administrative staff, including practice managers, receptionists, secretaries and IT officers. Around 375 General Dental Practitioners provide general dental services from 79 practices. There are 129 Community Pharmacies and 69 Optometry premises across the University Health Board.

The University Health Board delivers a growing range of community based services in patient’s homes, through community hospitals and through health centres and clinics. There are a number of smaller community hospitals, integrated health and social care centres, and health centres providing important clinical services to our residents closer to home.

The University Health Board also provides comprehensive Mental Health and Learning Disabilities services in both hospital and community settings to the population of Gwent and South Powys.

The role of the Board

The three key roles through which effective the board of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board demonstrates leadership within its organisation are:-

• Formulating strategy.
• Ensuring accountability by holding the organisation to account for the delivery of the strategy and through seeking assurance that systems of control are robust and reliable
• Shaping a positive culture for the Board and the organisation.

The role of the Board member focuses on four key areas:-

• Strategy – to contribute to strategic development and decision-making

• Performance – to ensure that effective management arrangement and an effective team are in place at the top level of the organisation. To help clarify which decisions are reserved for the Board and then ensure that the rest are clearly delegated and to hold management to account for its performance in meeting agreed goals and objectives through purposeful challenge and scrutiny, and to monitor the reporting of performance

• Risk – to ensure that financial information is accurate and that financial controls and systems of risk management and assurance are robust and defensible

• Behaviour – to live up to the highest ethical standards of integrity and probity and comply fully with the Code of Conduct. Board members should demonstrate through their behaviour that they are focusing on their responsibilities to citizens, the organisations and its stakeholders

Independent Members will among other things:-

• Play a full and active role in the governance of the Health Board, both clinical and corporate. You will take an active part in discussions, providing your opinion and challenge and support to the Board on key issues.

• Contribute to the work of the Board based upon your independence, your past experience and knowledge, and your ability to stand back from the day-to-day operational management;

• Contribute and accept corporate decisions to ensure a joined up, robust and transparent decision making process by the Board;

• Be expected, in time, to fully understand the business through active involvement to enable the effective performance of the organisation;

• Work closely with other public, private and voluntary organisations and will make sure that the views of patients, carers and families are fully involved in helping to shape, develop and improve services;

• Analyse and critically review complex information and contribute to sound decision making.

• Ability to contribute to the ‘governance and finance’ of the Health Board, ensuring it is open and honest in its work by contributing fully in the decision making process;

The Welsh Government acknowledges the importance of developing and growing bilingual capabilities in public appointments in Wales, and welcomes applications from candidates who demonstrate their capability to work in both English and Welsh.  The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the recruiting body of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

Independent Members will demonstrate the following qualities:-

Knowledge & Experience

• An understanding of health issues and priorities in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area and the ability to understand the role and work of the Board;
• Ability to hold the executives to account for performance whilst maintaining a constructive relationship;
• Ability to provide a knowledgeable, impartial and balanced perspective on a range of sensitive and complex issues;
• A broad understanding of the information governance requirements required to comply with legislation e.g. Data Protection Act (DPA);

Personal Attributes & Skills

The Health Board has defined a set of shared core values and behaviours – what the organisation stands for. You will need to be able to demonstrate the following:

• Good communication skills and the ability to engage with employees and employee representatives at all levels within the Health Board;
• Ability to work as part of a team and in partnership with other key organisations;
• Ability to involve and work with stakeholders to help shape, develop and improve services; and
• Ability to analyse and critically review complex information

To be considered, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the qualities, skills and experience to meet all the essential criteria for appointment.

Essential Role Specific Criteria

Independent Member – Community

You will have to demonstrate:

• Knowledge of and empathy with local community issues and priorities;
• A citizen focussed approach, championing the Board’s purpose in serving the public;
• Experience and skills that will support the Health Board in developing its community engagement.

31/05/2017, 23:55

For further information regarding the role of the Independent Member, please contact Richard Bevan, Board Secretary, Tel: 01633 435959. Email:

For further information about Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, you may wish to visit the Health Board’s internet web site: http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/866/home

To apply for this role, click on the ‘Apply’ button below. The first time you apply for a post, you will need to complete a registration form for the Welsh Government’s online application system.  You will only need to register once, and you will be able to keep yourself updated on the progress of your application, and any other applications you make, via your registered account.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to access the application form.  To apply you will need to submit two supporting documents. The first, a document answering the questions on pages 3 & 4 of the information for candidates document.  This document should be no more than 2 sides of A4.  Your application may be rejected if you exceed this limit.  The second document is a full, up to date CV.  The two documents should be uploaded to the ‘Reasons for applying’ section of the online application form.

In your application, you will also be asked to provide details of any activities which have helped you to develop skills that would be useful in a public appointment role, and list the organisations for which you undertook these activities.  We also need to know about any political activity that you’ve undertaken over the last 5 years. 

It is recommended that you register for an account and access the application form as soon as possible so that you see how the application form is structured, before starting to prepare your evidence.  You don’t have to complete the application form all in one go.  You can save your responses, and log in and out as required, until you’re ready to submit – just follow the guidance in the application form.

If you’d like to apply for this opportunity in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Welsh Government’s Corporate Shared Service Centre Helpdesk on 029 2082 5454 or SharedServiceHelpdesk@wales.gsi.gov.uk 

For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit www.gov.wales/publicappointments