Growing good governance at Oxford

• This blog explains how governance at Oxford works and what good governance should look and feel like

• Lara McCarthy shares news about the new Committee Secretaries Handbook, a resource to support colleagues who provide committee secretariat roles across the University

• Lara also highlights the Growing Good Governance Community of Practice and invites colleagues to join the community and/or one of its Lunch and Learn events

Do you hear the word ‘governance’ and switch off? Or even wonder what it is? It can be hard to get excited or interested in a topic that often feels abstract. After all, what does it mean in our day-to-day lives and what does good governance look and feel like?

It won’t surprise you to find out that governance can mean many different things and applying it, particularly applying it well, can be complex; arguably particularly so within our devolved structures. In this context, governance is how an organisation conducts itself and the processes used to enable good decision-making. The word itself comes from the Greek verb kubernaein, meaning ‘to steer’, with the first metaphorical use attributed to Plato.

Governance at Oxford

At Oxford, governance takes place in a variety of spaces, by different means that are specific to the task, operation or discipline being debated. These ‘means’ are usually determined by the approach that is being taken to the ‘task’ in hand whether that be development/revision/approval of a policy, allocation of resources, audit of an existing process or perhaps the University’s financial management.

For us, governance is generally applied through our many committees, which have been given decision making authority. Council is responsible for the administration of the University, and its finances and assets, and producing the strategic plan. Reporting to Council there are six main committees followed by numerous other committees and subcommittees. Divisions and departments also have their own committee structures, which perform the same functions as the Council committees. There’s a brilliant summary on the Medical Sciences Division Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Hub Digest for anyone keen to learn more.

Alongside these, our statutes and regulations define how things are to be done. These are the ‘instructions’ for how the University conducts business; they are our written legislation. We have an eye-watering 700-plus webpages covering every element of our statutes and legislation! The Herculean task of keeping these pages constantly up-to-date sits with my team. New legislation and amendments to existing statutes and regulations are shared with the University community via Gazette for review and feedback from Congregation before they are confirmed by Council.

Support for colleagues with committee secretariat roles

Our governance structures can only function effectively if they are properly supported; a vital role undertaken by many of our colleagues who provide the secretariat role to the committees. In Michaelmas term we launched the Committee Secretary Handbook as a resource to support colleagues who provide a committee secretariat role to any committee across the University, whether experienced, new into role or interested in learning more about the context of good governance. It was produced in partnership by members of my team and the Medical Sciences Divisional GRC team.

Empowering decision making

Good governance should feel structured but not rigid. It should be clear where decision making happens. Everyone should know who is accountable and responsible. It should feel controllable whilst leaving room for exceptions.

Committee secretariat, departmental and division staff dealing with governance-related items should feel empowered to both interact and intervene (where necessary) to ensure that the organisational unit or committee that they are advising has up-to-date information and understands the consequences of going outside the governance structure that exists.

Working together

The Governance team works with colleagues across Oxford, supporting and advising them on all aspects of governance. We do this in lots of ways, including through the Growing Good Governance Community of Practice (GGG CoP). Developed as part of the Professional Services Together professional communities' work, the GGG CoP is a supportive space where individuals can develop personally and professionally through work-based governance ‘challenges’ that they face in real time. Good governance is a collaborative effort so having a space where we can share resources, practical tips, skills and expertise across Oxford is so important.

The community comes together frequently when someone asks that ever popular Oxford question ‘is someone already doing this?’ and the answer so far has usually been ‘yes!’. We’ve made some great discoveries and saved countless hours not creating things that already exist.

In Michaelmas term we started a lunch and learn series to demystify governance at Oxford. The sessions are open to everyone, so you don’t need to be a member of the GGG CoP to join. We’ve completed three sessions so far and our next event will be on Tuesday 28 January, 12-12.30pm, on Teams where we’ll be discussing Terms of Reference and agenda setting. There’s no need to register, just join the session using our Teams meeting link. Look out for details for the rest of the series in future editions of Bulletin.

Learn more and get involved

You’ll find lots of information about my team and its work on the governance webpages. Take a look and get in touch if you have any questions.

The Growing Good Governance Community of Practice (GGG CoP) is open to everyone at Oxford. Please get in touch with me (lara.mccarthy@admin.ox.ac.uk) if you’d like to join, alternatively you can request access to our GGG CoP Teams channel. We’re a friendly group and always welcome new members!

There are hundreds of committees across the University; central, divisional and departmental, with opportunities to shape our institution. They provide a really valuable service in ‘steering’ our ship, and the more we can work together, share best practice and our experiences, the faster our ship can go.