Service must strengthen the diversity of NHS boards

NHS organisations can create a ‘sustainable pipeline’ of senior leaders that properly reflect the diversity of their staff and communities by refreshing their processes for appointing chairs and non-executive directors.

An independent taskforce, commissioned by NHS England and Improvement and led by the NHS Confederation, has published its report, Strengthening NHS board diversity, as part of the annual NHS Confed conference, to improve diversity of NHS chairs and other NEDs.

The report found that while there are pockets of innovation, the current NHS appointment process for NEDs would benefit from a standard, more transparent procedure.

Other key recommendations from the taskforce include: the requirement for NHS organisations to consider how to make board roles more attractive; the suggestion of a new ‘compact’ between the NHS and executive search firms (ESFs) setting out expectations on behaviours, data collection and a set targets for underrepresented groups who are shortlisted and appointed; and improved succession planning for NHS boards and their ESFs to build links and seek alternative networks to help build up databases of candidates from underrepresented groups.

Data from last year shows that the percentage of women holding non-executive director and chair roles is 41 and 37 per cent respectively, and for people that disclose their ethnicity as BME, that figure drops to 10 and five per cent, respectively.

Figures from NHS England and NHS Improvement, published in May, also show a lack of diversity on the boards of integrated care systems (ICSs), with just 14 women and five people from an ethnic minority background in chair positions. And according to the 2019 NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard report, there were 146 NEDs from ethnic minority backgrounds on NHS trust boards, although NHSEI signal that there have been improvements in this figure since then.

Joan Saddler, director of partnerships and equality at the NHS Confederation, said: “If Covid-19 has taught us anything about leadership, it is that it is key to have diverse leaders and we need many more of them. While there has already been progress in this area, more needs to be done to ensure that there is an independent process for the recruitment of NEDs and chairs onto the boards of NHS organisations.

“The recruitment process needs to be overhauled and a range of interventions are now required in order to fast-track the numbers of diverse NEDs and chairs working in the health service.”