For our final PCF event of the year, we heard from our newly elected Chair, Helen Pitcher OBE. An experienced corporate governance expert, having spent the last 30 years managing a portfolio career of Chair positions spanning the private and public sectors, Helen shared her perspectives on the future of public service and aspirations for PCF.

The changing role of a Public Sector Chair

Being Chair of a Public Body is a unique and challenging role. Learning to navigate the pressures of serving a diverse public; understanding the levels of autonomy granted to different ALBs; and learning to be effective with specific governance structures, all requires time, patience and peer support.

Public Bodies reform provides an exciting opportunity to improve public service delivery. With Cabinet Office reform poised to focus on five key areas (creating an Arm’s-Length Body strategy, building good governance structures, defining approvals gateways, clarifying funding decisions, and improving use of data) the role of a Chair of an ALB is likely to evolve further.

Ensuring that ALB Chair roles remain attractive in comparison to the private sector is an important consideration for attracting a diverse range of talent. Candidates with different skills and life experiences hold promise to help forge a new and inclusive style of leadership, creating solutions to some of society’s most challenging problems.

Future of PCF

Founded in 2007, PCF has long held a central mission to strengthen UK public services. Through a specially tailored programme of meetings, events, research and workshops, we’ve aimed to provide peer support, insight, inspiration and education for Chairs of Public Bodies.

As was clear at our recent PCF Annual Conference 2021, government are focused on “co-production” and are keen to hear from and engage with a diverse range of public sector leaders to help shape focused and meaningful policies. Thus, in the coming year members will have a unique opportunity to inform and we hope, to shape the agenda of future government reform.

There remains real potential to drive improvements across the ALB landscape and emphasise the value that these Bodies provide to public service. Given that current membership spans a wide range of ALBs, including Non-Ministerial Departments (NMD), Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB) and Executives Agencies, ranging in size and operating in a variety of fields from regulation to operational delivery, PCF is well positioned to surface a diverse range of perspectives.

In the future, PCF hopes to act as a forum for debate on future of public bodies, enabling members to contribute to consultations, provide feedback on some of the most critical challenges facing ALBs.

PCF 2022 member programme will launch in January 2022.