PPI Champions Group: Chairing role and process
Purpose:
The purpose of recruiting a public member of the group to act as chair is to increase the shared ownership of the group and its agenda and to allow members to develop knowledge and skills. We do this in a number of ways:
- Public member of the group as Chair of the group.
- Facilitate a small planning group to work with the chair (including Co-Chair, strategy group public partner and PPI Lead).
- Use working groups to encourage group members to be actively involved in the work of the group.
- Encouraging members of the group to lead on sections of the agenda and/or present feedback on working groups they have been a part of.
What is the role of the group Chair?
| Purpose and activities of the group chair |
| Has pre meeting to finalise agenda so has a degree of familiarity with agenda items and relative importance etc.Chairs the meeting and makes decisions about agenda timings to keep meeting on track etc. Encourages ‘presenters’ to ‘chair’ their section of the meeting.Has post meeting contact (meeting or email) as needed to follow up on any items and check draft minutes for accuracy etc.Over time develops a more detailed understanding about the items on the agenda, their relative importance and purpose.Can substitute for Strategy Board Public Partners as needed and when agreed with the ARC Senior manager. |
| We took the key elements from this option to give us the flexibility to co-produce and share power without someone having to take on all the responsibility of a chair. |
| Skills required: The key skills are facilitation and leadership whilst also having a sense of diplomacy and democracy. It can also mean allowing others the chance to contribute while having less of an opportunity to contribute yourself. |
| Practicalities: The role is to be reviewed annually in general, but for the purposes of the current ARC is six months. |
Selecting a chair
| The Chair is a recruited position | We formally recruit someone to the role of chair.The information above is used for recruitment.We use our ‘Who does what’ process.This is always from within the group, where possible. |
Co-Chair: This is also a recruited position from within the group. The key difference is that the aim is to recruit someone to this role who would like the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to take on a chairing role.
Appendix 1: Chairing options for PPI Champions Group
The following describes the process of finalising the chairing options for the PPI Champions Group.
Background
A group member suggested we should have a Public Member of the group chairing meetings. The group agreed and thought this would be a positive step forward and ensure meetings are more co-owned rather than just the staff team setting the agenda etc.
The following outlines the potential roles for a chair that were presented to the group.
They were also provided with some ideas on how they might recruit the chair and how it might work in practice.
The final description of the role of the group’s Chair is a combination of elements from B and C below.
The group also agreed that there should be a small planning group to support the role of the chair and to ensure a spread of knowledge and decision making. This group consists of a co/vice/deputy chair (term to be agreed), a Strategy Board Public Partner and the PPI Lead.
What is the role of the Chair?
This can vary, and the following table shows how it might differ. All of the options include admin support from the staff team for things like minutes and writing papers etc.
| A: Light touch role for the chair | B: Somewhere in-between! | C: Full chair role |
| Simply chairs the meeting with little input to the agenda, papers, agreeing minutes etc.Provides an opportunity for people to ‘have a go’ at chairing and developing those skills. Might feel a bit tokenistic and can be difficult to do without pre/post follow up e.g. not having an insight to agenda items and why they are there etc. | Has pre meeting to finalise agenda so has a degree of familiarity with agenda items and relative importance etc.Chairs meeting with support from staff team around timings and adjusting agenda during the meeting Has post meeting contact (meeting or email) as needed to follow up on any items and check draft minutes for accuracy etc. | Helps pull together agenda and papers for the meeting.Has a more detailed understanding about the items on the agenda, their relative importance and purpose.Chairs the meeting and makes decisions about agenda timings to keep meeting on track etc.Follows up after meetings to agree draft minutes and actions etc. |
| This level of chairing has the potential to feel a little ‘tokenistic’ but could offer opportunities for people to gain experience and develop skills. | This option would give us the flexibility to co-produce and share power without someone having to take on all the responsibility of a chair. | This option is leaning towards co-production and shares power around setting the agenda more equally between staff and public members. |
| Skills required: The key skill is that of facilitation and leadership whilst also having a sense of diplomacy and democracy. It can also mean allowing others the chance to contribute while having less of an opportunity yourself. | ||
| Practicalities: Depending on the type of chair we want we will need to consider things like term of office, does the role require a higher level of payment etc. | ||
What type of chair do we want and how can we recruit them?
| Type/recruitment | Description | What type of chairing role is this |
| Elected Chair | The group elects a member to be the chair. This is probably one of the simplest ways to involve a public member as a chair. | This would most likely be A but could also be B. |
| PPI Staff Chair | Continue as we are with a member of the PPI team chairing the meetings.This is an option but not necessarily one we would recommend. | This is C but does not involve a public contributor. |
| Recruited Chair | We formally recruit someone to the role of chair.This could be from within or from outside of the group. | Most likely C but could also be B. |
| Rotating Chair | The position of chair rotates between members of the group.This could change for every meeting or be for a fixed period of time or number of meetings eg for a year or for 3 meetings. | This would most likely be A, but could potentially be B but might be very difficult to manage. |
| Co-Chair | Either co-chair with another group member or more likely with a staff member.This can work well but it can also lead to the role being tokenistic for public members or for one of the co-chairs. | This could probably be A, B and/or C. It is often B/C for one co-chair and A for the other – it is hard to balance for both. |
| Chair and Vice Chair | This is slightly different from co-chairing.It allows for one person to be chair but provides a second person who often becomes the next chair but also allows for a stand in if the chair is not available.Not sure if we need the complexity of this. | B or C for chairs role and A or B for the vice chairs role |