Ellen H.
About me
| Ellen H. | |
| Politics, Economics and Philosophy | |
| Politics and Philosophy | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Derwent | |
| 2001 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Deputy Company Secretary | |
| NHS Trust | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Healthcare | |
| 2014 | |
| 43000 | |
| 44600 |
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A day in the life of a Deputy Company Secretary in the United Kingdom
Broad ranging compliance role in NHS Trust
My career goals when I graduated
To find a job!
My career history
I initially took recruitment consultancy jobs they gave me a chance to prove my work ethic. I then moved to DWP as an executive officer where I was able to move into different roles including project work and line management. I joined a county council and ran the school appeals function for four years before having my children.
I went back to work on a fixed time contract as a committee clerk and that opened the door for me to move to a College as Clerk to the Corporation (responsible for all of the Board's business).
What has helped my career to progress
Trying different roles and always being willing to take on a new project.
Courses taken since graduation
Inspirational Leadership
Coaching and Mentoring
Train the Trainer
ICSA FE Cert
PRINCE2 Practitioner
How my studies have helped my career
The academic rigour and ability to challenge your own ideas from my degree helps when drafting a new policy.
What surprised me about my career so far
That I ended up in Governance and that governance is such a broad field.
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Company Secretary of a NHS Trust and studying for my masters - sadly working full time with young children makes additional study hard.
My advice to students considering work
Don't assume that lower paid jobs have no benefit to you. Every job is a chance to prove a work ethic and to learn new skills. The graduate fast track schemes aren't the only way to start your career.
My advice about working in my industry
Don't discount the importance of soft skills in governance. A company secretary needs to be able to manage the relationship between CEO and Board and influence people to take the right decisions rather than forcing compliance on them.
Other advice
Smile and be pleasant to everyone at work.
What I do
I am responsible for compliance with CQC and other legal regulations for a large NHS Trust. I run assurance and improvement programmes, investigate serious incidents, deliver training, manage a team who look after the Trust Board and oversee the Freedom of Information responses.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Communication - I had worked in governance for several years before taking this job so was used to writing policies, board reports and briefing notes as well as delivering training to different groups and trying to influence people to write reports on time!
Organisation - I often have several crises occurring at once so need to be able to prioritise and delegate.
Governance knowledge - Gathered from experience and doing plenty of reading around
Stamina - you need to be able to maintain concentration for long periods of time.
What I like most
The variety of work and knowing I've helped services improve and make a difference to patients.
What I like least
Taking minutes. I minute board meetings to ensure I am in the loop but find it hard to find time to write the minutes after the meeting and now that I only do one meeting a month my minuting skills are getting rusty.
What surprised me most
The workload! I'd worked in the public sector before and always worked over the contracted hours but the discretionary extra hours NHS Managers put in is phenomenal!
Next steps...
If you like the look of Ellen’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Ellen a message to find out more about their career journey. If you feel you would benefit from more in-depth conversations, ask Ellen to be your mentor.