PwC's NHS Non-Executive Director Programme

The role of an NHS NED is increasingly demanding as the healthcare system goes through major challenges and upheaval. NHS boards play a key role in shaping the strategy, vision and purpose and are responsible for holding the organisation to account for the delivery of strategy and ensuring value for money. Board must also assure that risks to a trust and the public are managed and mitigated effectively.

"Very thought provoking, its important as a NED to have "time out" to discuss the longer term issues facing the NHS."

Vanessa Connolly Cambridgeshire & Peterborough CCG

"Great programme, thank you for letting us access it."

Fiona McKenzie, NeXt Director Scheme

Our programme aims to support NHS NEDs via a series of briefings, workshops and other one-off events to help address the need to keep up to date with Board issues and to assist directors to respond to the challenges they face. We offer expert knowledge and real life experience from within and without the sector including a balance of macro and micro level topics for the whole board, as well as a specific workshop for the Audit Committee.

We draw on the best minds within the healthcare sector as well as using the expertise we have developed from our work with key clients across the NHS. The forums give NEDs a unique opportunity to debate and discuss with their peers.

Programme details

Our NED programme activities are designed for NEDs from any NHS organisation. It has been designed with feedback from colleagues across healthcare and reflects the latest issues, developments and thinking in the sector.

For more information on the events listed please contact Ozz Ward.

Upcoming events

100 Days of Government
November event
February event
May event

100 Days of Government

Date & time:
22 October 11:00am - 12:30pm (followed by networking lunch)
Attendance:
Hybrid - in person and online
Location:
PwC 1 Embankment Place, London, WC2N 6RH

To attend any of the above events or be kept up-to-date on all future events please fill in the form below.

"A great programme which stimulates and re energises me"

David Clayton Smith, East Sussex Healthcare

Past events

Engaging communities
Delivering the basics
Capital and Infrastructure
Innovative practice in data management, digital delivery and wider technologies
Provider Relationships
Future workforce planning, recruitment and retention
Prevention
Working more effectively with Local Government
Wes Streeting

Engaging communities

The key to population health?

There is growing world wide evidence that developing a successful approach to managing population health requires an effective approach to community engagement. Places such as Canterbury NZ, Alzira, Jonkoping, Wigan all have highlighted the importance of this in their journeys of success. In this session we will examine if these lessons are being learnt at scale in the NHS and care system? We will ask what the role of Boards are in support of this and ask board members whether they are prioritising this in the face of immediate operational service delivery challenges. To discuss this we will be joined by Martina Moore - Director of ICS NI, Emma Latimer - Executive Place Director, Sheffield, South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, Ruth Rankin - Director of Primary Care at NHS confederation, along with Karen Finlayson, a senior partner from PwCs health team.

Date & time
23 July 2024
13.00 - 14.30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Delivering the basics

How doing the fundamental things right in the NHS will help transform for the future

Getting the basics of financial control, good workforce management, excellent standardised operating procedures may look like the more routine work of an NHS board but without it there is no solid platform for transformation or productivity gains. In this session, we will be asking what does it take to get these back into place? Are these disciplines things we lost and haven’t regained since COVID? Should Boards be addressing these challenges first before rushing off onto ambitious plans for more radical change? To debate this we will be joined by Jim Mackey, CEO The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Ann Marr, CEO at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Stephen Hay, PwC advisor and turnaround director with Greater Manchester ICS.

Date & time
21 June 2024
14.00-15.30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Capital and Infrastructure

Can we transform health and care without it?

The NHS and care system has witnessed real challenges over recent years in terms of the level of capital and underlying infrastructure not only to keep pace with immediate need and pressure but crucially to underpin and fuel service transformation. Is this time for a new regime? What options do NHS bodies have? And what can and should Boards be doing to proactively engage with and manage this problem? To discuss this, we will be joined by Lucy Gardner, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHSFT, Nina Russell, Programme Director for efficiency at scale with the CMAST provider collaborative, and Zoe Watters, a senior partner from PwC’s health team.

Date & time
15th May 2024
11.00-12.30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Innovative practice in data management, digital delivery and wider technologies

How can innovative practice in data management, digital delivery and wider technologies enable the NHS and care system to meet the policy challenges and expectations in the next 5 years?

There are high hopes that technological advances and improvements in data capture and analysis, along with the digital delivery of key services, will be the main underpinning platform for achieving key nhs targets such as elective recovery, service productivity, and a shift to preventive health, but what does this mean in practice. How do Boards separate out the wheat from the chaff in terms of their investments in these areas? What should Boards be doing to promote coherent and effective innovation? What scale and relationships do Boards need to forge? To discuss this we will be joined by Sonia Patel, System Chief Information Officer, NHS England; Justin Jewett, NED at NHS SBS, Katy Brown and Hals Williamson from the Co-op Group and two expert partners from PwC’s health team.

Date & time
11th April 2024
11:00 - 12:30 GMT (followed by a networking lunch)
Attendance type
Hybrid - in person or virtual
Where
PwC More London (or virtual)

Provider Relationships

How providers working in collaboration are beginning to change the culture and capability of the health and care system

Provider Collaboration rather than competition has featured strongly over recent years, not only in the NHS landscape but also across the globe. This direction of policy and culture for the service has been welcomed at many levels but what does it take to make this successful? We will be considering the experience to date of creating collaborative structures and ask are Boards helping or hindering? What more can we do to make this way of working easier for Boards to adopt? To that end we will be joined by John Turner, CEO of Lincolnshire IC, Helen Hurst, Chair of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHSFT and former Interim Chair at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHSFT, along with John Morris, a Director from PwC’s health team.

Date & time
28th March
11:00 - 12:30 GMT (followed by networking lunch)
Attendance type
Hybrid (In person and online)
Where
PwC Birmingham Office and Virtual

Future workforce planning, recruitment and retention

How can the NHS deliver on its commitments without being effective in these areas

The NHS and care system is only ever going to be as good as its workforce, including, their capacity, capability and desire to achieve ambitious policy aspirations post COVID. In this session we will explore the role of Boards, the actions they can take locally on recruitment, and retention and then the wider policy and national roles on creating sufficient training opportunities in medical and nursing schools. The importance of agreements on pay and the need for leadership to enhance and regain the high level of morale we need. To that end we will be joined by Trevor McMillan, Vice Chancellor of Keele University, and Shropshire Telford and Wrekin ICB NED, Liz Mear, Chair of Kirklees Integrated Care Board, former NED, Health Education England and Serra Tezisler, from PwC's Workforce Team.

Date & time
22nd February 2024
10.00 - 11.30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Prevention

Are we on the verge of a genuine revolutionary pivot to prevention rather than cure?

As the title suggests for this session, there is huge hope that health policy and emphasis might be swinging towards prevention, rather than, or maybe more realistically, alongside cure. For this to be the case, what will need to happen to the way our current system works? What shifts in policy, incentives and service delivery will need to take place. Crucially what will Boards and board members need to do to shift to a new way of working and a rebalanced set of priorities. To discuss this, we will be joined by Alan Milburn, former Secretary of State, Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, and a senior partner from PwC health team.

Date & time
7 Feb 2024
10:00 - 11:30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Working more effectively with Local Government

The key to genuinely integrating health and care

Despite the rhetoric of many years of health policy makers and planners, the integration of work on health, healthcare and social care seems still to be an aspiration rather than a reality for everyone. The development of ICBs and place based work seems to offer a real chance to take another step towards this overarching policy aim, yet for many new OCSs have focused on top down largely nhs priorities. So, what should Boards be doing to realise the potential of integrated care? To discuss this we will be joined by Sir Richard Leese Chair of Greater Manchester ICB and former leader of Manchester City Council, and Kate Josephs, CEO of Sheffield City Council, along with a partner from PwC health team.

Date & time
25 Jan 2024
13:00 - 14:30 GMT
Attendance type
Online
Where
Virtual

Wes Streeting

The future for health and care systems - what might new policy thinking bring to the NHS?

For this session we will explore the need for Boards to be anticipating health and care policy over the coming 5-10 years, as the service wrestles with an excess of demand over supply. What will solutions look like and what should Boards be doing now to manage today's problems whilst also planning more radical approaches to tomorrow's challenge. To discuss this we will be joined by shadow Secretary of Health, Wes Streeting along with one of the senior partners from PwC.

Date & time
31 Oct 2023
12:00 - 13:00 In person networking
13:00 - 14:00 Hybrid session with Wes Streeting
Attendance type
Hybrid (Online and In Person)
Where
Central London and Virtual

If you are interested in the NHS NEDs programme and would like to find out more, please fill out this form.

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PwC's NHS Non-Executive Director Programme

Programme details