Board Secretary

Job description

Job responsibilities

Working Relationships

Work closely with the Director of Corporate Governance and Head of Corporate Governance, to provide assurance that the corporate governance framework and processes are effective;

Excellent relationship needed with the Governance team, particularly with the Risk and Governance Officer who is a direct report;

Work closely with the Executive team and senior leaders;

Work with the Board and its committees, including the Chairs to ensure support of meeting structures;

Establish constructive working relationships with a range of internal stakeholders, including departmental leads across the organisation;

Work with external stakeholders, including providers and partner organisations and auditors.

Operational responsibilities

To act as secretary to the Board of Directors, including managing meetings of the Board and ensuring smooth running administratively;

To act as secretary to the core committees of the Board, currently Audit & Risk Committee and Remuneration Committee, including managing meetings and ensuring their smooth running administratively;

To be responsible for preparing agendas liaising with relevant chairs, collate and circulate papers, production of minutes for the Board and relevant Committees, maintenance of action and decision logs, registers;

To advise on the governance implications of meeting paper content in line with governance policies;

To ensure that the Board and its committees have all requisite information to enable them to function effectively and provide advice on all governance matters;

To support the Chairs and Executive teams at all meetings to ensure compliance with the governance policies and framework including the legal, regulatory and statutory requirements;

To manage the annual work plans and annual cycle planning for the Board and its core committees;

To ensure that there is an appropriate information flow within and between the Board, its Committees and the executive functions;

To support the Director of Corporate Governance in the development and delivery of an annual Board development programme;

To support the Director of Corporate Governance to put into place and maintain a succession plan for members of the Board;

To support with the appointment processes for new Board members, including induction programmes;

To ensure that the Director of Corporate Governance is fully briefed on corporate governance developments, new law and guidance or other issues which might affect the Board, and developing and updating governance policies in line with this;

To provide leadership with arrangements in respect of standards of business conduct and in particular conflicts of interest processes to ensure the Governance team manage processes in line with policy requirements;

To line manage the Risk and Governance Officer in line with HR policies, including managing sensitive staff issues, and role model best practice to the team to demonstrate what good looks like;

Provide reports for the senior meeting structure when required, including presentation of reports at meetings;

The post holder is directly responsible for the operation of the information system used to record all Board decisions.

To participate in governance assurance mapping liaising with senior managers as required;

To participate in internal audits related to governance;

To support with annual reporting requirements, such as the annual report and annual, interim governance statements, memorandum of understanding, drafting and co-ordinating relevant sections;

To contribute to the development of governance budgets/financial incentives alongside the Director of Corporate Governance

Responsible for the procurement and maintenance of all physical assets used by the board and chair.

To represent the organisation and participate in external networks related to governance;

To undertake reviews of and provide comment on draft policies from a governance viewpoint, and to be responsible for contributing to the implementation of said policies in the work place;

Deputise for the Head of Corporate Governance when required;

Use initiative to analyse and support with various highly complex risk and governance issues;

Create documents and presentations of a high standard and present at meetings/run workshops/training sessions as required;

Undertake specific project work when required.

This job description and person specification are an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role; the job holder will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required.

The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the Department and the Organisation.

Person Specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

Essential

• Educated to Masters degree level or equivalent qualification or equivalent experience
• Highly developed Specialist Board/Company Secretary experience
• Significant evidence of continued professional development in specialist area of Board secretarial duties and/or governance
• Governance/chartered secretary qualification
• Able to present information and reports in an accurate and confident manner to the Board of Directors, Executive team and all levels of the organization, deliver presentations and run workshops
• A good understanding of the health and social care environment and the roles and responsibilities within it and the NHS generally
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages
• Proven leadership experience
• Experience of operating in a complex organisation, leading on a portfolio area and building credible relationships across an organisation

Communication and Relationship Skills

Essential

• The ability to build trusted relationships and inspire the confidence of the Board of Directors
• Excellent communication skills, to produce concise information and advice to a range of stakeholders

Planning and Organisational Skills

Essential

• Effective organiser, planning ahead to meet deadlines and balance competing priorities
• Ability to manage short, medium and long term projects and plan strategically
• Professional, calm and efficient manner
• Attention to detail and accuracy

Autonomy/ Freedom to Act

Essential

• Ability to work on own initiative and proactively organise own workload without supervision, working to tight and frequently changing timescales
• Flexible and adaptable, to ensure service needs are met, balancing operational and strategic needs
• Adhere to confidentiality requirements

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB (104)

Address

Omega House

Eastleigh

SO50 5PB

Employer's website

https://www.hantsiowhealthandcare.org.uk/icb (Opens in a new tab)