Preparing your Board for Stage 2
Jonathan Flowers
This blog is aimed at Programme Leads who may have little experience of managing externally accountable boards and Town Deal Board Chairs looking for guidance about what is required of Boards during Stage 2.
Stage 1 is complete, and against some tough deadlines, your Town Deal Board put forward a Town Investment Plan that brings a strategy to support and change your Town. That plan has now been submitted to MHCLG to agree a Town Deal.
This was a fantastic milestone to reach. As the leadership and governance Topic Expert for the Towns Fund Delivery Partner team, I have greatly enjoyed reading your plans and imagining the impact they are going to have for your places.
From my conversations with various Town Deal Boards during Stage 1, I want to share some thoughts about what is different about Stage 2 and how your Board might adapt to get the most out of this next stage of the programme.
An opportunity to reflect and adapt
The focus for your Board is different in Stage 2, and now is an opportunity to think about whether your Board needs to adapt to tackle new tasks ahead. You may consider:
Is the composition right?
Does your Board need a different mix of skills or new members that bring additional skills or offer access to new networks?
Does your Board need a different frequency of meetings or new or different subgroups?
Are there things about how your Board worked in Stage 1 that you are keen to continue into Stage 2?
Perhaps there are other things your Board would like to change?
You may be making key prioritisation decisions in Stage 2 to match your Town Deal funding offer or because you need to reconsider your projects in light of new information or changes in circumstances. As this all becomes closer to implementation, it will all get more real. Does the rigour of the challenge need to consciously improve? Is the priority more about establishing a sense of shared purpose and stronger relationships, building back from conversations in Stage 1?
Guides for changes and choices
We can support you in a number of ways. Firstly, the table below provides some thoughts about what changes and choices you may wish to implement. Secondly, we have created online resources for you and your Board, such as our Good Governance Tool and this video “what good looks like” on a board.
We have also added a new service to the Expert Drop-in Hour – ‘Boards: Successful Working’, where you will be able to have a one-to-one discussion with our experts on how to support a successful Board.
It’s all to play for, now is the time.
