A New Staff Role: Shared Governance

As I briefly mentioned last week, I officially have a new role at work, actually two new roles but this week, I'm talking about just one! I have wanted to be on the Shared Governance Council for a long time and applied when my previous manager was in the role. Well, with poor staffing levels, Shared Governance has taken a bit of a step down and now it's back and relaunched so of course, I reapplied and I was excited to be accepted! 

Shared Governance is a big topic in the NHS and especially at my trust, who is one of the leaders of the topic. We have a team of managers who lead on Shared Governance and slowly, each ward is being launched across the board. We have a brand new team from Labour Suite, Triage, Obstetric Theatres and Obstetric Doctors! This includes, band 2s, band 3s, band 5s, band 6s and doctors. I would love to have a receptionist on the team as well, but currently, none of them are interested. Together we form a new Maternity (Specialised) Shared Governance Council, which aims to empower staff to have collective ownership to develop and improve practice, whilst being facilitated by managers.

The meaning of Shared Governance in higher education refers to structures and processes through which faculty, professional staff, administration, governing boards and, sometimes, students and staff participate in the development of policies and in decision-making that affect the institution. But it places power in the hands of frontline staff, and not managers, giving you the chance to influence decision-making. Staff get to be empowered to speak up and feel confident to share their ideas. 

I'm so excited to be on the team and can't wait to see what we can achieve.