Running SWOLF. Duties and Responsibilities
RUNNING SWOLF AND ASSOCIATED OFFICERS AND DUTIES:
When considering the Chair and Vice Chair roles, members need to also remember that running SWOLF is a day to day, week to week task, not just about running a quarterly meeting.
Running the Group requires the acquisition of experience in dealing with the members and outside personnel and their organisations, together with the confidence to set up and run the meetings. The Chair and Vice Chair need to keep abreast of current Health and Social care issues, canvass member’s interests and opinions, and represent same clearly at LFC and related central meetings. This would prove challenging for the “rotating chair” concept.
If no ongoing Chair is available then it has been suggested that SWOLF may try to run its business on the basis of a “rotating chair.” If this is the case, the duties below still have to be dealt with and this implies that “rotating chairs” will need to assist with all the “between meetings” tasks set out below. If there is an ongoing Vice Chair then agreement will need to be reached on an ad hoc basis as to “who does what.”
Since the days of SWOL, when a group of Patient Group reps met with Gavin Bartholomew on a quarterly basis for an exchange of information on health matters, the workload associated with running SWOLF has increased significantly. The administration of SWOL was carried out by an NHS employee, Tina Cooper, who undertook all the work associated with setting up and running the meetings, and Dr Bartholomew chaired the meetings. Our morphing into a “Locality Forum” has maintained the quarterly Group meetings whilst adding the need to relate strongly to the OCCG, both directly and via the Locality Forum Chairs (LFCs). Ensuring that the voice of SWOLF is heard where it is required means that the Group needs to maintain strong and active representation within the LFCs, and when they meet with OCCG top management, as well as the SWOL CCG executive. It also entails involvement in other LFC instigated activities and meetings with health providers such as Oxford Health and of course Healthwatch Oxfordshire. These responsibilities have greatly increased the workload involved, and this has landed on the shoulders of the lay-chair of SWOLF, and there is no “Tina Cooper” to support him/her! The truth is that Dasa Miklosovikova and Julia Stackhouse do provide some limited assistance, but this is not seen to be a mainstream part of their jobs, as it was for Tina Cooper.
My overall summary of the breakdown of all the work that I undertake as a patient representative is: Chair of WMC Patient Group: 10% (but the WMC Patient Group benefits from the work that I do for SWOLF), Chair of SWOLF: 50%. Involvement with LFCs/OCCG/others: 40%
For those of you who might reflect on this and say “let’s pull out of the LFCs, etc and thereby reduce the workload,” I have to respond by saying that this path is not available to us, whilst we remain one of the 6 Public Locality Forums. We are obligated to participate under the terms of the agreed Forums/OCCG “Letter of Intent.” In fact I would go on to suggest that at present SWOLF is not sufficiently representative of the public in SWOL and that we need urgently to work on this as we go forwards.
With the foregoing in mind I now set out how I view the workload of running SWOLF in more detail for your information, but I would summarise the on-going administrative requirements as follows:
- A Chair who is elected and able to serve for at least a year at a time so that he/she builds experience in the job.
- A Vice-Chair, ditto
- A Group Secretary, who preferably serves for a number of years, gaining experience of what is required to support SWOLF.
- A SWOLF “core group” of the above + say 2 or 3 keen SWOLF members, to provide fast support and counsel when required.
The only way in which I can see a “rotating SWOLF chair concept” working is if such chairs had significant on-going support from an active and experienced Vice Chair and a Group Secretary. I would NOT recommend going down the rotating chair route, if this can be avoided.
JS = Julia Stackhouse, AL = Alison Langton
LFCs = Locality Forum Chairs
Dasa = Dasa Miklosovicova
DUTIES THAT NEED TO BE CARRIED OUT: / CURRENT: / FUTURE ??- Responsibilities to Oxfordshire:
Attend the LFC/OCCG management meetings inputting on behalf of SWOLF, and report back to SWOLF members. One every 2 months.
Attend the monthly SWOL CCG Doctors’ meetings inputting on behalf of SWOLF, and report back to SWOLF
The division of labour regarding the above matters should be the subject of agreement between the Chair and the Vice Chair / Chair/Vice Chair
Ditto
Chair/Vice Chair
SWOLF member and/or Chair / Chair/Vice Chair
Ditto
Chair/Vice Chair
SWOLF member and/or Chair
- Responsibilities in between SWOLF quarterly meetings:
Respond to individual member requests for help/information
Progress requests of OCCG as required
Provide reports on SWOLF as requested by OCCG, HWO, etc
The documentation on the Talking Health website needs to be kept up to date and old “past their sell-by date” documents weeded-out on a regular basis
Deal with all on-going business associated with the LFCs and their strategies/meetings, etc
(NB: the work in between meetings is mainly email based and requires daily access and attention to email traffic. At present most of this work falls upon the Chair. The appointment of a Group Secretary could reduce this over time. SWOLF would not be considered to be properly run if email traffic was allowed to build up without timely responses). / JS/Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
No-one is doing this at present
Chair/Vice Chair / JS/Group Sec
Chair/Group Sec
Chair
Chair/Vice Chair
Group Sec
Chair/Vice Chair
- Running quarterly SWOLF meetings:
Plan the next meeting’s draft agenda and ensure that this, together with allied/ relevant reports and papers, are sent to the members at least 14 days prior to the upcoming meeting.
Ensure that suitable venues are booked for 12 months ahead on a rolling basis (all proposed venues should be inspected for capacity and suitability). Also ensure that venue managements understand our lay-out requirements, refreshments, etc
Follow-up with all outside contributors to ensure that they have the agenda and timings for their slots have been agreed in advance.
Arrive 30 mins minimum prior to all meetings to ensure that room has been correctly set-up.
Chair SWOLF meetings on a professional basis and ensure that agenda items run to time slots and that the meetings do not over-run.
Following the meeting the draft minutes should be prepared and with the meeting’s Chair within 5 working days.
Review 1st draft minutes and amend as required. Ensure same are circulated to those present within 14 days.
Receive any inputs from members and amend the Draft 2 minutes accordingly. Ensure these are available to all via the Talking Health website.
Ensure that all “actions” relating to the minutes are progressed in between meetings. / Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
Chair
JS/Chair
Chair
Chair/JS
Chair / Chair
Chair/Group Sec
Dasa/Group Sec
Chair/Vice Chair/Group Sec
Chair
Chair
Group Sec/Chair
Chair/Group Sec
Chair/Group Sec
Chair/Group Sec
- Provision of leadership/Governance compliance to the SWOLF group:
Annually (or as required) review SWOLF TOR and progress updates via the membership, confirming same every January.
The chair should ensure that the Group has agreed objectives and is working towards them
The SWOLF is required to act as a public Locality Forum and needs to expand its membership base and reach accordingly.
Most importantly the Chair must brief him/herself on current Health/Social Care/Patient issues and be prepared to sound out views and put forward summary positions for SWOLF, both verbally and in writing fairly and forcefully. / Chair
Chair
Chair
Group members / Chair/Vice Chair/Group Sec
Chair/Group Sec
Chair
Chair/Group Sec/members
Martin Tarran-Jones, SWOLF Chair
December 27th 2015
MTJ December 27th 2015. age 1