John Adler shares his thoughts on why he stood for election to the NHS Providers' governor advisory committee (GAC). He was interviewed by NHS Providers' members development manager Claire Mescia, and shares his thoughts below.
What motivated you become a governor and what career/jobs/life experiences have you had that are relevant to your governor role?
I have a lifelong commitment to the NHS through my career as a senior manager, a career from which I retired in September 2020. I worked across several regions of the NHS, including Yorkshire, the South-East and the Midlands. My main experience was in the acute hospital sector although I also took in community and mental health services as well as the regional level, which is the bit in between the Department of Health and Social Care/NHS England and the front line. As a result of this experience I understand how the NHS works and how it can continue to be improved and I thought it would be good to use this expertise as a governor, since it is the role of the governors to hold the board of directors to account and to comment on the plans of the trust. I think I'm well placed to do this as I know what good looks like and the right questions to ask (hopefully!). In this way I hope to complement the skills and experience of those governors who bring first-hand experience as patients, relatives or carers, since such insights are vital in order to understand how services work on the ground.
How long have you been a governor?
My three-year term of office started in September 2020, which means I'll shortly complete my first year, which I can't quite believe!
What do you enjoy most about being a governor?
While a governor at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust I've been involved in two particularly interesting things. I'm a member of the recruitment and remuneration committee and we have been recruiting new non-executive directors (NEDs). I think this is one of the key roles that governors play, since it is the non-executives who hold the executive directors to account and the latter are of course the ones who run the trust on a day to day basis. In the most recent appointment round, our trust made a real effort to improve the diversity around the board table (which was decidedly lacking) and succeeded in appointing a high calibre NED from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background. We will be looking to continue this diversification in future appointment rounds.
What made you stand for election to the GAC?
Governors play a very important role in the foundation trust model, ensuring that there is a strong connection with the population served by the trust and with the staff who work for it. Both are essential if the trust is to be responsive to the needs and aspirations of both constituencies. It is vital that governors are well prepared for our role and have the right skills to work effectively. The governor development programme from NHS Providers is a central element of this and its high quality has been greatly assisted by the contribution of the GAC. I stood for the GAC because I felt that my career background made me well suited to be able to contribute fully to the committee and in particular to ensure that the needs of children and young people are represented around the table. The development programme will need to adapt to the changing architecture of the NHS and I should be well placed to help with that work, as well as wider thinking about the role of governors and the foundation trust model more broadly in the coming years.
What do you think are the challenges facing the NHS?
The NHS undoubtedly faces a difficult period over the next few years. It was already under severe pressure prior to the pandemic and the backlogs created over the last 18 months have exacerbated that situation. On top of that, the precarious state of the nation's finances will make it tricky to find the resources needed to "catch-up". In any case, you need both money and manpower to do that and the latter is in short supply in many areas. On the plus side, the pandemic has shown that the NHS is capable of adapting very quickly when needs must, and it will be important to maintain this adaptability and flexibility as things return to "normal". Governors will continue to play a key role in ensuring that trusts stay focussed on the most important things and continue to improve, but we will need to be realistic about what is achievable.
What changes in healthcare that you see locally or nationally excite you?
To my mind the most exciting changes in healthcare coming down the line are in the field of medical science. The development of genetics will allow us to treat, and even cure, many more diseases and there could be continued breakthroughs with cancer treatment in particular. Having said that, with people living even longer, we urgently need to make progress on dementia care and strengthen the social care system.
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