Building strategic leadership capacity
Building and renewing strategic leadership capacity is esential for all boards. The context of recession and resulting reductions in public expenditure means that this will be even more important to foundation trusts for the foreseeable future.
The FTN has run a successful programme of development opportunities for Company Secretaries as the first step in providing wider board developemnt opportunities. Take up of places and levels of satisfaction of participants are high. Company secretaries report that they are able to use the learning effectively when they return to their workplace. This programme will continue in the coming year. The FTN is looking to build on the success of this programme, exploring a range of development opportunities for both executive and non-executive directors.
FT/FTSE Link Project
Partnerships between foundation trusts and prominent businesses will continue to make a central contribution to the governance work programme in the year ahead, in particular on continuing to develop strategic capacity. Over the course of the last year the FT/FTSE project has evolved. The focus of the project has broadened to allow the inclusion of mutuals, partnerships and consultancies. At the same time it has become apparent that partnerships do not have to be based on major projects, but can also involve individuals providing mutual support, being available for example, to talk through business issues by phone and swap ideas by e-mail.
There will also be scope for the FTN to offer additional support at the set up stage where all parties agree that this would be helpful. Increasing recruitment of companies to scheme is clearly of central importance and a range of innovative approaches will be necessary to achieve this during an economic downturn. We are expectivng to bring more companies into partnership early in 2010. For further information contact john.coutts@nhsconfed.org.
Communications
The distinctiveness of the FT governance model forms a significant part of the communication work-stream. The governance work programme will continue to feed into the communication strategy for the year ahead with particular emphasis on increasing understanding of the governance model, embedding the role of governors and members and increasing the capacity of FTs to engage effectively with stakeholders.
Networks
A forward plan is being developed for the Company Secretaries Network covering key areas of work that the network will need to cover while allowing sufficient flexibility to incorporate initiatives, unanticipated innovations and urgent items. The forward plan will include priorities identified by other teams in the FTN as well as company secretaries themselves and will be subject to wide consultation. For more information please contact john.coutts@nhsconfed.org.