WNC as an Advisory Non-Departmental Public Body

What is a Public Body?

A public body is generally an organisation which receives at least 50 percent of its funding from central government. Within this framework, some public bodies operate to a greater or lesser extent at arm's length from Ministers and are not part of a Government Department. These specific bodies are generally referred to as Non Departmental Public Bodies and are managed by a Board whose members are appointed by the Minister.

There are five main categories of NDPB:

Executive NDPBs - these have executive, administrative, regulatory or commercial functions, employing their own staff and managing often considerable budgets. They also have their own set of accounts.

Advisory NDPBs - these are set up by Ministers to advise them and their Departments on particular matters. Advisory bodies generally have no staff of their own but are supported by staff from their sponsor Department. Their expenditure is usually no more than members' expenses. They do not have their own set of accounts

Tribunals - these are independent of Government, and decide the rights and obligations of private citizens towards each other or towards a Department or other public authority. Tribunals are established, for example, to decide medical appeals and employment disputes. They do not employ staff and do not incur expenditure on their own account

Public corporations and nationalised industries - these are industrial or commercial enterprises under direct Government control, with responsibility for employing their own staff and managing their own budget

National Health Service bodies - these are bodies which provide management, technical or advisory services within the NHS, and which normally have responsibility for employing their own staff and managing their own budget

Advisory NDPBs

An advisory NDPB is a group of individuals who have been asked to advise Ministers on a particular issue or range of issues. The group can be created or dissolved at any point and are not allowed to deviate from their remit. The Board members are tasked with this alone.

Usually the body will not normally have support beyond provision of a meeting room and basic administrative help to minute meetings, etc. Staff can assist the members in their role, but do not have an independent role themselves. Staff remain part of Government and their primary duty is to the Department, not the Board.

An advisory NDPB cannot develop its own policy or publicly criticise government decisions. It can, however, compile criticisms from its stakeholders that are already in the public domain, so long as the criticisms are properly labelled as not being the view of the body itself.

WNC has a remit to bring together comments, both positive and negative, and to express them publicly in this manner, but only when it is expressing the views of its Partners. WNC can only express its own views which can be strong or dissenting, to Ministers in private. This is part of being an advisory body and the Board could be confident that it was carrying out its role properly. However, that dissenting advice would need to be accompanied by evidence and offer a course of action.

Purpose of the Board

The main purpose of the Board, is to provide effective leadership, direction, support and guidance to the organisation and to ensure that the policies and priorities of the Minister are implemented. The Minister appoints Board members to make an effective contribution to the work of the Board and to ensure that it discharges its governance functions effectively on their behalf.

The Board acts collectively and no one member can represent the Board except the Chair. They must act as the public face of the body, but can only express the agreed view of the Board.

The Board, therefore, is the bridge between the Minister who approves the Corporate/Business Plans and key performance targets of the Body, and the Chief Executive and Senior Management Team who aim to ensure that the Plans are delivered and targets met through effective and properly controlled executive action.

A key role of every Board member is to scrutinise plans and underlying assumptions before decisions are taken. In exercising this role, Board members should be prepared to question the position adopted by senior officers and, if necessary, other Board members with a view to clarifying issues and securing improvements.

WNC/07/5/14

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