The group requires a mixture of members of the research and life sciences community, NHS Digital executive and Non-executive board members, and senior government officials who have notable experience and expertise in this domain. The full membership and rationale are set out in Appendix A.
The period of tenure for members of the group is usually a minimum of 2 years. This is at the discretion of the co-chairs.
1.2 Composition
The full membership is listed in Appendix A. It includes:
- a chair or co-chairs member representation from research and life sciences
- the RAG secretariat
- NHS Digital executive director(s), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department and Health and Social Care (DHSC) (or delegates of their choosing) - that are expected to attend all meetings;
- the sponsorship team (representatives from DHSC, MRC, ESRC and NHS Digital) – which with the secretariat will be responsible for making arrangements and attending all meetings
- National Data Guardian representative and
- guests and observers may be invited to attend at the discretion of the chair
1.3 Quorum
There is no minimum attendance for the group as it is an advisory and not a formal decision- making body.
1.4 Member responsibilities
Members are responsible for:
- preparing for meetings by reading papers in advance and forwarding any other business to the secretariat
- providing expertise and contribution to support relevant initiatives – at and outside of meetings – members will be aligned to key strategy areas and initiatives where they should provide guidance and support to those undertaking tasks
- bringing relevant issues to the attention of the group and inputting to the forward business schedule of agenda items
- promoting and advocating the group to key stakeholders
- ensuring discussions are collaborative, constructive and clear
- fulfilling assigned actions by the due deadlines and
- contributing to RAG communication activities where appropriate
1.5 Research Advisory Group chair(s) and sponsorship team
The Research Advisory Group Co-Chair(s) are nominated by the MRC and the DHSC.
The tenure of the Chair(s) will be reviewed at a minimum on an annual basis and will be confirmed at the start of the financial year.
A RAG sponsorship team will contain representatives from DHSC, MRC, ESRC and NHS Digital – nominees will be advised by each organisation on an ongoing basis. The RAG sponsorship team will support the development of the RAG agenda and chairs briefing. Both will be completed around five weeks prior to the meeting date for chair review and finalisation.
1.6 Forum secretariat
The RAG’s secretariat will be provided by the office of NHS Digital’s sponsor executive director.
1.6.1 Secretariat responsibilities
The secretariat will ensure that:
- meeting times, locations and facilities have been arranged
- a current list of members is centrally maintained
- the agendas and supporting materials are circulated to members a minimum of 5 working days in advance of the meeting
- actions from the group are accurately captured and tracked to completion
- summaries of minutes are drafted and finalised via the chairs, executive sponsor and RAG sponsorship team, and
- the group’s documents are managed as per NHS Digital’s records management policies and procedures and are accessible to members on request
1. 7 Communication of RAG
Working collaboratively with RAG member organisations, NHS Digital will lead the approach to communicating the work of RAG. This will include:
- ensuring relevant and timely content is available for the NHS Digital RAG web page
- establishing a clear mechanism to propagate consistent messages to all the organisations that comprise RAG
- timely communication of RAG’s activities with other stakeholders in this environment; and
- a member of NHS Digitals communications team attending RAG meetings
Meeting frequency and composition
1.8 Frequency
The group shall meet quarterly. There will usually be four meetings in a calendar year.
1.9 Agenda
The chair(s) is responsible for approving the agenda of items to be discussed at each group meeting.
The agenda will contain:
- Standing items – for example, to review the previous meeting minutes
- Information items – for example to share information relevant to the group. Where this is provided by external guests it is anticipated that RAG would usually have no more item per meeting; and
- Input items - requiring discussion/ a decision / support for direction
It is anticipated that most of the agenda will contain Input items - the agenda will ensure that these are prioritised with adequate time for discussion. To support this
- pre-reading documents will provide all relevant information and key questions for discussion. Presenters should leave adequate discussion time within their allocated time slots
- all presentations and other pre-reading documents and a cover sheet are required by the secretariat 10 working days in advance of the meeting to allow for review adjustment
- all meeting documents will be issued no less than 5 working days before the meeting.
1.10 Record of meetings
The secretariat will produce a summary of the minute of proceedings
Draft minutes will be shared for chair review within 15 working days of the meeting; upon review completion they will be shared with members as ‘draft pending ratification at the next RAG meeting’. To ensure progress against actions, draft actions will be shared with owners within 5 working days of each meeting.