Vacancy -- Vice Chair - Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

This is an exciting opportunity to make a contribution to local health services, aligned with the Strategic direction of NHS Wales.

ABMU is a values-based organisation. Working with patients and staff, the Health Board has established a values and behaviour framework based upon three core values: ‘Caring for each other’; ‘Working together’ and ‘Always Improving’. These values will increasingly drive the work of the Board, including values-based recruitment and values-based appraisal of staff.

ABMU is one of the largest integrated health organisations in the UK advancing clinical excellence and driving forward clinical research. It covers a population of around 500,000 people and has an annual budget of over £1 billion and employs around 16,500 staff, 70% of whom are involved in direct patient care. It provides integrated care for patients and delivers tertiary, acute, intermediate, mental health, community and primary care services to people in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend and beyond.

In addition ABMU provides a large range of regional and sub-regional services including cardiac surgery and burns and plastic surgery for patient in the South West of England, forensic mental health for South Wales and learning disability services from Swansea to Cardiff as well as for the Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil areas.

Primary Care Services are provided through general practitioner, opticians, community pharmacists and dentists who all operate as independent contractors. AMBU manages GP Out-of-Hours Services and General Medical Services for Swansea prison.

ABMU has four acute hospitals providing a range of services:

 Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend;
 Neath Port Talbot Hospital in Port Talbot;
 Singleton Hospital in Swansea; and
 Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

There are also a number of smaller community hospitals primary care resource centres providing important clinical services to residents outside the four main acute hospital settings. As at 31st March 2017, ABMU had 2,248 beds.

ABMU has developed strong partnerships with neighbouring health boards, local authorities, the 3rd sector and others. These include Swansea University with whom we strive to develop a research and education-driven culture, working in close partnership with Swansea University, its College of Medicine, Human and Health Science, and the Institute of Life Science.

ABMU is currently involved in an exciting project with Swansea University and Hywel Dda health Board called a Regional Collaboration for Health (ARCH). This is health and science working together, to improve the health, wealth and wellbeing of the people of South West Wales.

The role of the Board

The three key roles through which effective the board of the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg 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

This is a great opportunity to use your skills and experience to make a difference to the lives of people and communities served by ABMU. The Vice-Chair will be a member of the Board and will deputise for the Chair in the latter’s absence

The Vice-Chair will:

• Be required to play a full and active role in the governance of the Health Board, both clinical and corporate, and are expected to bring to the Board an independent judgement on issues of performance, key appointments, looking ahead and accountability;

• Contribute to the work of the Board based upon their independence, their past experience and knowledge, and their 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 Health Board;

• 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.

In addition to his / her corporate role across the breadth of the Health Board’s responsibilities, the Vice-Chair will have a specific brief to oversee the UHB’s primary, community and mental health and learning disability services ensuring a balanced care model to meet the needs of the UHB’s population. The Vice-Chair will:

• Provide strong, effective and visible leadership, across primary, community, mental health and learning disability services; internally through the board and its committees, and externally through his/her connections with a wide range of stakeholders and partners within the wider community levels and nationally;

• Chair the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Legislative Committee of the Board which oversees compliance with mental health legislation and associated codes of practice;

• Be responsible for scrutinizing the governance arrangements for primary, community, mental health and learning disability services. Working within ABMU’s governance framework, to provide Board assurance as to the effective delivery of whole-system working based on integrated care pathways;

• Work closely with the Chief Operating Officer/ Deputy Chief Executive and Service Director for Mental Health & Learning Disabilities Delivery Unit to agree and deliver an integrated work programme that reflects the relevant needs of the ABMU population;

• Work effectively with community partners, particularly in their sphere of responsibility and more widely supporting the Chair to ensure that the organisational culture and working practices are based upon a spirit of open, meaningful and sustainable partnerships. The Vice-Chair will have excellent communication skills and will, through effective scrutiny, assure the Board that the organisational structures give equal weight to primary, community and mental health services as to other services and provide opportunities for contractor services to fully engage in the design of services;

• Support the Health Board’s performance management processes, to ensure integrated performance management and improvement;

• Help build and sustain a direct relationship with primary care contractor professionals, ensuring their full engagement in the work of the Health Board;

• Undertake an external ambassador role, delivering in the public spotlight and instilling public confidence.

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.

Vice-Chairs will demonstrate the following qualities:

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience of leading and developing a successful private, public or third sector organisation, with the ability to look ahead and provide strategic leadership;

• Experience of understanding the relationship between resource allocation and management and delivery of service priorities within a framework of robust governance;

• Ability to analyse complex information and contribute to sound decision making;

• Ability to work with the executives to ensure the Board leads the organisation effectively. Where necessarily you will demonstrate skills that will enable you to hold the executives to account for performance whilst maintaining a constructive relationship;

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

• Experience of working within communities and multi-disciplinary teams.

Personal Attributes & Skills

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

• Ability to lead and inspire staff, to look ahead and identify key issues for the organisation;

• Strong interpersonal skills with personal impact and credibility to be an effective advocate and ambassador with strong influencing and negotiating skills;

• Drive and determination, with the ability to instil vision and develop defined strategies to pursue long and short-term goals;

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to be clear and succinct, and to be able to engage with people at all levels;

• Ability to facilitate understanding of complex issues while demonstrating respect for the views of others;

• Sound judgement, sensitivity and political awareness;

• Capacity to be independent and resilient; and

• Ability to discharge the Vice-Chair role in the context of the broader statutory and corporate responsibilities of the Board and the roles of the Chair and Chief Executive.

Candidates must also demonstrate:

• A clear understanding and commitment to equality issues and challenging discriminatory practices.
• A clear understanding and commitment to Nolan’s ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’.

21/07/2017, 23:55

The closing date for this position has been extended to Friday 21 July 2017.

For further information regarding the role of the Vice Chair, please contact Andrew Davies, Chair of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. Tel: 01639 683302. Email: Andrew.davies25@wales.nhs.uk

For further information about Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, you may wish to visit the Health Board’s internet web site: http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/863/home

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

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