Author’s Chichester Seminar to Scrutinize UK Public Leadership during Covid Pandemic

• Leadership writer Dr Douglas Board scrutinizes modern leadership and high profile failures during, and leading up to, pandemic
• Ground-breaking author joined by high-profile guests from Whitehall, Sussex hospitals, and Pensions Regulator
• Free-to-attend seminar will unveil thread between recent scandals involving Met Police, BBC, and Whitehall

THE state of public leadership in the UK – and high-profile failures of organisations during and leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic – is the subject of a new talk in Chichester next month.

Ground-breaking writer Dr Douglas Board will scrutinize leadership and its impact on Britain at the seminar, hosted at the University of Chichester on Thursday 9 September.

The event, which is free to attend, also includes a panel of experts with senior leadership experience in Whitehall, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, and the Pensions Regulator.

Dr Board, who has authored five leadership books, said: “Deep into the first Covid wave, ministers named the new emergency ‘hospitals’ after Florence Nightingale, a reference which reached back to the Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856.

“That War is more relevant to this moment in UK public leadership than the government realised and, in this talk, I will offer a fresh and accessible way to reflect on what is going on, and why there is the possibility of hope.”

The seminar, which starts at 6pm, is hosted at the University of Chichester’s Bishop Otter campus on College Lane, PO19 6PE.

It is also being streamed online via Microsoft Teams at this link here.

Dr Board will speak about the common thread between three recent scandals: the independent inquiry into the Met Police’s handling of the Daniel Morgan murder, alongside the BBC’s handling of Martin Bashir and the Whitehall/Greensill inquiry.

Among the guest panellists is Dame Marianne Griffiths, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. She will be joined by Sarah Smart, Chair of the Pensions Regulator, and Marina Bolton, Director of Civil Service Organisation Development, Design, Culture and Inclusion, who will each present their own takes on the state of public leadership in Britain today.

Event host Dr Rob Warwick, a Reader in Management and Organisational Learning at the University, said: “I don’t think there has ever been a time when public leadership has been so important. Douglas is one of the few people I know who addresses the topic with such clarity and freshness that gives us both insight and hope in our own agency.”

The seminar is part of a new series of talks by the University’s Business School across the next year.

Next month’s event will be hosted in-person and also streamed online – social distancing remains in place on campus, together with NHS Test and Trace, and seating will be arranged to reduce risk of transmission.

Read more about Douglas and his work at www.twitter.com/@BoardWryter.

Event details

• Author Dr Douglas Board and guests present State of public leadership in the UK today
• Starts at 6pm on Thursday 9 September
• Hosted in the University of Chichester’s Academic Building, Bishop Otter campus, College Lane, West Sussex, PO19 6PE.
• Can also be watched virtually on Microsoft Teams via this link.
• Free tickets can be booked at ukpublicleader.eventbrite.co.uk
• Parking is free on campus from 5:30pm