Governance Advisory

Verita are leading independent governance consultants who develop clear solutions which lead to real improvement

Governance Reviews & Consultancy

Effective governance is crucial for an organisation to build trust with stakeholders and plays a fundamental role in the quality of leadership and risk management.

At Verita, our governance consultants have extensive experience carrying out reviews and developing solutions to governance problems.

Our advisory work spans private and public sector organisations who require support reviewing and improving systems or processes which have led to a problem.

We are frequently called into organisations where something has gone wrong and improvements to organisational structures and processes are needed. These concerns are raised from a variety of sources, including staff and service users, from students at universities to employees working at charitable organisations.

To see how Verita might be able to advise your organisation on governance issues, please contact Verita founder Ed Marsden on 020 7494 5670 or via email at [email protected].

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Healthcare Governance Reviews

In the NHS governance issues are often identified following a serious clinical incident or concerns about an individual clinician. Our role as specialist healthcare consultants is to determine if an organisation missed opportunities to identify and address concerns prior to a specific incident.

Increasingly issues are raised by whistleblowers who feel that they cannot make their voice heard internally. This can be a difficult experience for organisations who are automatically put on the back foot and it’s our job to diagnose and suggest improvements to prevent this from happening.

Corporate Governance Advisory

Our corporate governance consultants have extensive experience carrying out investigations and reviews of high-profile organisations. Our corporate investigation service helps to resolve complex issues such as misrepresentation of performance information, regulatory breaches and conflicts of interest.

As well as this, we are able to independently assess matters concerning poor service delivery or leadership problems and provide practical suggestions for improvement.

How we work

Through a combination of careful sifting of evidence and thoughtful evaluation, Verita are able to resolve difficult issues and develop clear solutions. We pride ourselves in the ability to advise organisations in practical ways that lead to real improvement.

We conduct our reviews by looking at relevant policies and any guidance issued. These are assessed wherever possible against benchmarks of good practice. We interview staff to see if policies are adhered to, monitored and reported on. Our specialist knowledge and experience of working with regulated organisations allow us to identify the key issues and recommend improvements.

Case Study

A trust had been placed in special measures as a result of negative regulator inspections which revealed deficiencies in its compliance function, leading to a disjointed audit programme.

To support development of its compliance unit the trust called on Verita to ensure it was closely aligned with the internal audit function. This included taking a holistic view of what the regulatory bodies required and how these requirements can be efficiently and effectively delivered to ensure that the system is a genuine means of improving patient safety and experience.

Our Governance Expertise

Our advisory work for organisations such as the Arts Council and the British Council centre on complaints that are made to them. We are able to look at the issues that lie behind these complaints and see whether there they raise more fundamental questions about how the organisation is run. That allows us to consider what changes are needed within the organisation.

We recently carried out a major review of an outsourced public service looking at the way the service was managed and how this was reported up through the organisation. We were also asked by two government departments (DH and DfE) to oversee how public bodies went about investigating the issues that arose from the activities of Jimmy Savile. Our role was to quality control the investigative work undertaken by a number of organisations and see if improvements could be made to the approach that they took.

To find out more about our experience working with issues of governance, and about the case outlined above, click here.

Find out more

To learn how Verita might be able to assist your organisation with insights and advice on governance issue, contact Verita’s founder, Ed Marsden on 020 7494 5670 or via email at [email protected].