NHS Scotland - blueprint for good governance: second edition

Foreword

In 2018 the Scottish Government recognised the need to ensure that the governance arrangements in NHS Scotland were fit for purpose and keeping pace with the changing policy and financial environment. In response to this challenge, the Director General for Health and Social Care commissioned a review of best practice in healthcare governance. The outcome of the review was a blueprint for an effective governance system that could be adopted across NHS Scotland. The first edition of the Blueprint for Good Governance was published in January 2019 and since then NHS Boards have been adapting this model to meet the needs of their organisation and respond to the challenges faced by the NHS, including the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As NHS Boards look forward to recovering and renewing the health and care system it is important that good governance remains in place to stabilise service delivery while continuing to support the longer term ambitions of service design and reform as part of the Care and Wellbeing Portfolio. To assist Boards in achieving that goal, the NHS Scotland Corporate Governance Steering Group commissioned additional guidance on delivering the approach described in the original Blueprint for Good Governance. The purpose of this document is to share the latest thinking on healthcare governance by publishing a revised version of the Blueprint that will support the NHS as it moves from response to recover and renew.

This second edition of the Blueprint for Good Governance now includes a definition of what is meant by ‘good’, placing more emphasis on the delivery mechanisms and the need to apply a continuous improvement approach to healthcare governance arrangements. Consideration of the approach to the governance of change now features more prominently in the design of the governance arrangements. The updated guidance also highlights the need for NHS Boards to adopt both active and collaborative approaches to governance.

I would like to thank all those in the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and the other public and private sector organisations who have contributed to the development of the revised Blueprint for Good Governance. I am particularly grateful to the members of the NHS Scotland Corporate Governance Steering Group for their insight, advice and contribution to the final version of this guide to delivering good governance in healthcare.

Professor John Brown CBE

November 2022