Honorary Secretary/Trustee

The Practitioner Health Matters Programme (PHMP) is an independent, confidential mental health support programme for doctors, dentists, and pharmacists.  It is aimed at those practitioners who have a concern about a mental health or a substance misuse issue.  The Programme has been designed to reflect international best practice in practitioner health and aims to strike a balance between supporting practitioner confidentiality and patient safety.

A confidential service registered with the Charities Regulator, the PHMP enables practitioners to seek medical help and support independent of the regulatory and professional representative bodies.  It is a program designed specifically for health professionals and focuses solely on the necessary strategies which will support the practitioner in getting back to full health and to safe working.

PHMP is currently seeking an Honorary Secretary to join our Board of Trustees.

Role:

The primary purpose of the role of the Hon Secretary is to ensure good governance and secretarial support and to aid the meetings of the Board of Trustees of the PHMP (www.practitionerhealth.ie). The Hon Secretary is a Trustee and senior officer of the charity and forms part of the leadership team which provides direction to the Programme between Board meetings and works closely with other officers and with the Medical Director.

The Hon Secretary provides oversight of the AGM process and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and the organisation’s Constitution and Articles of Association.

The role also involves a range of responsibilities including:

• Inputting to the strategic direction and contributing with insight, oversight and experience of strategy formulation in other sectors;
• Supporting the Executive to ensure effective Board meetings, AGMs and EGMs in compliance with the organisation’s Constitution and general regulatory requirements in this regard:
• Planning meetings and setting the agenda in conjunction with the Chairperson/Trustee;
• Ensuring the taking of Minutes at such meetings as required and making sure that these are filed and retained securely and circulated to members of the Board as soon as possible thereafter;
• Participation on sub-Committees as required (occasional additional meetings);
• Attending a small number of meetings with key stakeholders as part of the leadership team;
• Preparing reports as required for Board Meetings;
• Liaising as required with members of the Executive in preparation and maintenance of annual accounts.
• Representing the Board of Trustees of the PHMP;
• Signing and certifying all relevant documentation on behalf of the PHMP as required;
• Maintaining, continuing and strengthening the relationships of PHMP with various key stakeholders;
• Advocating on behalf of PHMP.

Qualities and Skills Required

• Corporate governance experience and expertise, ideally within the Charities’ sector;
• Understanding of the roles/responsibilities of a Board of Trustees of a registered charity;
• An understanding of the application of GDPR;
• Background in a senior management role or relevant management experience;
• Strong leadership skills;
• Good presentation, advocacy, communication and interpersonal skills; 
• Impartiality, fairness, and the ability to respect confidences; 
• Tact and diplomacy.

Meetings:

The Board meets 5-6 times per year at a south Dublin location.