Boards Wales newsletter – July 2025
Blog post
This month I comment on the recent publication of the Independent Water Commissioner’s report into the water sector in Wales and England. It’s not as ‘dry’ as it sounds (haha) – governance issues have plagued the industry since privatisation, and even though Wales has not suffered from a hemorrhaging of money from the sector to shareholders (as has happened in England), the performance of Dŵr Cymru – doesn’t on the face of it – offer a compelling validation of the not-for-profit model.
But does a very rural country with high levels of poverty mean that Dŵr Cymru has had little opportunity to make inroads into strategic issues? The jury is out, but change is coming, with Ofwat going, and models of water sector governance in Wales still not fully confirmed.
Events
My friends at GatenbySanderson held an event to help first time non-execs into their first Board role – or at least gave them plenty of tips on how to succeed! Don’t worry if you missed it; they have made the whole webinar available to watch, and incorporated plenty of practical suggestions to get you started. Link here. The session features the fab Sherrie Woolf who I had the genuine pleasure of working with last year – well worth a watch! She shares her experiences as Chair of the Mid Wales Sports Partnership.
Welsh Government – public appointments guidance
Welsh Government’s public appointments unit has ‘upped its game’ on giving support for potential public Board members. Their guidance is available here.
New page on the website – resources!
Don’t get too excited; this page is still in its infancy. But it has it’s first entry – ‘asking better questions on Nature for Board Directors’.This is a subject close to my heart, as you’ll know if you read last month’s newsletter!
I aim to populate it with resources that are directly relevant to potential or current Board members in Wales (I confess – it will also be useful as a page of bookmarks for me!); so check back and please let me know if you come across things that would be relevant for the brilliant audience here at Boards Wales.
Statistics!
Very much a work in progress, I am attempting to track some data on the positions that are listed on Boards Wales. It will include things like number of positions available, whether they are paid, and how much (daily rate).
I hope to be able to publish preliminary statistics in the next month or two. But please note that I am only able to post the Board positions that I become aware of, so they will be heavily skewed towards public appointments that often have a payment associated with them. This is because the public appointments page has an RSS feed – very much appreciated by me. It enables me to get a notification automatically every time a board position is listed. If only all organisations had this functionality…
Thankyou for your interest in good governance in Wales. Until next time!
David Clubb