During the planning phase for the current board member and chair recruitment, the previous skills and competencies by which the existing Boards were recruited have been extensively rewritten with a view to making them more relevant to an environment of Public Value Partnerships and a mixed economy. It was against these skills and competencies that all candidates were assessed and ultimately short listed.
The revised competencies focus on skills acquired within public, private and not for profit organisations—people management, financial management, strategic management, operational management and corporate management.
All successful board chairs have been invited to attend a two day induction event on corporate governance on the 6 and 7 December 2006.
A number of day long training sessions on key issues affecting the work of the board chairs will be delivered on a monthly basis from February 2007. These events will include topics such as financial and resource management, performance management, public promotion of probation, public protection, budget management, etc. A major theme will be the transition from board to trust status and how probation will operate in this new environment. Chief Officers who are ex-officio members of boards are the accountable officers in terms of budgets and also have responsibility for all operational matters including public protection. The new board chairs have a key ambassadorial role for their board and this will be developed in the programme outlined above.
There are plans to organise an induction seminar and ongoing training events for new board members. This will be arranged in early-mid 2007. There will also be induction exercises at the local board and regional level