What is a public appointment?

Over the last ten years or so, there has been a concerted effort to encourage a wider range of people to apply for public appointments. Traditionally, the majority of these have been filled by the “male, pale and stale” – mature white men, and there has been concern that decisions made by a group of people with a relatively narrow perspective may not be of as good quality as desirable.

However, it is clear that people are failing to come forward, either because they think that because they aren’t pale, male and stale, they won’t be considered, or because they simply don’t know what is involved. If you are considering applying, please be assured you that the former isn’t true, and the following is intended to help with the latter.

Public appointments cover everything from sitting on the Board of the local hospital or primary care trust, to making decisions about how legal aid is distributed or how universities are funded. At a local level, they may involve a time commitment of a few hours a month, at a national level as much as two or three days a month. Local appointments may be voluntary (i.e. unpaid), but are a good way to get practice about what it is all about; national ones always include the payment of expenses and generally also a moderate payment.

But what does a public appointment involve? The first thing to say is that you are not there to run the organisation – that is the work of the staff. You are there to bring the benefit of your experience, which may be about your work or your life experiences, to the aid of the organisation. Typically, you attend Board meetings about once a month. Prior to the meeting, you receive a pack of papers setting out the agenda, and detailing what the issues are and what advice or decision is being sought.

The question for the non-executive is “What do I know about this issue? What can I add to the debate? Do I agree with the action proposed?” You are there to act as the voice of the general public – effectively the shareholders for public bodies. You are also there to oversee the governance of the organisation, to scrutinise the way in which public money is being spent and to act as a “critical friend” for the staff of the organisation. You then enter into the discussion at the meeting, listening as well as giving your views, and the objective is to reach a decision by consensus, and this will be the aim of the Chair.

Once the decision is made, the non-executive has a duty to stand by collective responsibility – to stand by that decision, even if it wasn’t the one that you actually wanted. Just as the support of non-executives and their advice can be hugely valuable to the organisation, so non-executives who criticise the organisation outside can be hugely damaging to its effectiveness. If you really can’t abide by the decision made collectively round the table, then the only way forward is to resign, but that means the organisation will not have the benefit of your viewpoint.

In many organisations, it will not just be a case of attending meetings – there will also be opportunities to see it in action, meet its “customers”, whoever they are, certainly meet the staff and get to know them, and hopefully see the impact you have made on the effective running of the organisation.

This just skims the subject, but hopefully, it will have given a flavour of what a public appointment means and encouraged you to think about it.