A staff member is to be allowed to sit on the board of the Wrightington,
Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust for the first time.
The trust has introduced a new partnership policy which allows an employee
representative to the join the 14-member board.
Bill Livingston, HR director at the trust, said, "It gives staff an
equal footing in the business and means their side will always be heard by the
board. A staff representative is the logical conclusion to our partnership
moves of the past few years."
The employee will have full attendance rights but will not be allowed to
vote on decisions.
Livingston said, "Maintaining confidentiality could well be a problem
as it could be argued that the staff member could have a conflict of interest.
But I think the move shows trust between the trust and its employees."
Livingston’s HR team and the board are currently drafting a new mission
statement with the help of two internal staff bodies. It should be implemented
by the end of the year.
"The mission statement is crucial to the future of the trust as we
merged with Wrightington this April. The statement needs to be updated to
include all our employees," he said.
The trust has been developing a partnership approach since 1996 when the
chairman criticised the organisation for being "happy to call itself
unhappy".
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