BBC Board Member for Wales

7 months ago

£38000 per annum 2days/week 4 years

About the role

Role description

Non-executive directors have particular responsibility for:

Bringing an external perspective to bear on the business of the BBC and contributing to the development of effective strategy and organisational change.
Ensuring that the Board’s decision-making is in the public interest informed by the best interests of the audience and with appropriate regard to the impact of decisions on the wider media market in the UK.
Providing an independent, objective viewpoint on the Board to test and constructively challenge management.
Playing a key role in ensuring that the BBC maintains the highest standards of corporate governance, particularly with respect to financial reporting, internal control and risk management.

The Board Member for Wales will be required to Chair the Wales Committee. The remit of the Committee is to require that the BBC provides output and services that meet the needs of Wales, and that the BBC fulfils its public purpose in relation to the Nations and Regions of the United Kingdom. The Committee meets at least three times a year and is comprised of: this appointee as Chair of the committee; the Director of Nations and Regions for BBC; and the Director of BBC Wales.

Organisation description

The British Broadcasting Corporation is the world’s leading public service broadcaster and occupies a special place in the cultural life of the UK.

The BBC’s mission is defined by the Royal Charter: to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.

It does this through delivering five public purposes:

To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.
To support learning for people of all ages.
To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services.
To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom.
To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world.

The BBC is independent in all matters concerning the fulfilment of its mission and the promotion of the public purposes. It is funded primarily by the licence fee and seeks to deliver distinctive content that serves all audiences. It does this through:

A portfolio of television services, including the UK’s most popular channel BBC One, the 24-hour News Channel, acclaimed channels for Children and the young-audience service BBC Three, as well as national and regional television programmes and services across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Ten UK-wide radio networks, providing the best live music and speech broadcasting in the United Kingdom, catering to all audiences.
Two national radio services in each of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, catering to both English and indigenous language audiences, as well as 39 local radio stations across England and the Channel Islands, all of which provide a unique and local service to listeners.
Award-winning and industry-defining digital products including iPlayer, BBC Sounds, apps for News, Sport and Weather, Children’s online services, as well as a significant digital archive.
By providing trusted and impartial news and information for audiences across the world, delivered through the BBC World Service on television, radio and online in more than 40 languages.

In addition to this, the BBC’s commercial operations – including the producer and distributor BBC Studios and the Studioworks production services business generate additional revenue for investment in new programming and services for UK audiences.

The BBC has an annual income of c.£5bn, made up of licence fee and commercial revenues. It employs around 20,000 permanent staff and works with hundreds of contractors and freelancers across the industry. It has bases in all four Nations of the United Kingdom, along with bureaux and offices across the globe.

Each year the BBC is required to publish an Annual Plan, setting out details of its creative remit for the forthcoming year, and an Annual Report and Accounts, reporting back on performance in the previous year.

Board composition

The Charter requires the BBC to ensure that it provides output and services that meet the needs of the United Kingdom’s nations, regions and communities. To help the BBC deliver this duty, the Board includes non-executive Board members representing Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England.

Nations members of the BBC Board are appointed by the UK Government with the agreement of the relevant devolved administration – the Welsh Government in this instance.

Collectively, Board members are responsible for ensuring the BBC effectively, efficiently and independently exercises its functions as set out in the BBC’s Royal Charter and Framework Agreement. These are to:

Uphold and protect the independence of the BBC.
Ensure that the BBC fulfils its mission and promotes its public purposes.
Act in the public interest, ensuring that the benefits of decisions relating to the fulfilment of the mission and promotion of its purposes outweigh the costs.
Set the BBC’s strategic direction and budget.
Set a performance assessment framework and monitor delivery against it.
Set the BBC’s editorial and creative direction, and standards.
Ensure the proper handling of complaints about the BBC.
Ensure the effective and efficient management of the BBC and its commercial subsidiaries.
Exercise rigorous stewardship of public money, securing the effective and efficient management of the BBC’s finances.
Ensure that the BBC complies with its legal obligations including those set by the Royal Charter.
Consider proposals for material changes to the BBC’s UK Public Services, non-service activities, trading activities and commercial services.
Observe high standards of openness and seek to maximise transparency and accountability.
Appoint, and hold to account, the management of the BBC.
Monitor the BBC’s engagement with, and reporting of performance to, its stakeholders, in particular to licence fee payers, and ensure it is assessing and meeting the needs of the diverse communities of the UK.

Regulation of appointment

This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website

Person specification

Essential criteria

All candidates must be able to demonstrate a commitment to the independence, mission and public purposes of the BBC, as well as demonstrating that they meet a majority of the following criteria to a high degree:

Experience working at the highest level of public or commercial life in the UK and/or internationally, with experience of sitting on commercial and/or public sector boards.
An understanding of the key challenges and opportunities facing public service broadcasting in the UK as well the commercial media sector (UK and global) and the impact on audiences.
A proven ability to think through complex issues strategically, independently and imaginatively.
A commitment to upholding the BBC’s Editorial Standards, including independence and impartiality.
Experience exercising excellent financial stewardship and securing value for money.
Excellent communication and relationship management skills, and the ability to represent the BBC capably to a wide range of stakeholder groups, including audiences, parliamentarians and the media.

In addition to the essential skills and experience listed above for all non-executive appointments for the BBC, applicants for the role of Board Member for Wales must be able to demonstrate the following attributes:

A strong knowledge of the culture, characteristics and affairs of the people of Wales.
An understanding of views of audiences and public opinion in Wales.
An understanding of media production in Wales in both the Welsh and English languages, as well as the ability to bring an external perspective to the BBC’s partnerships in Wales, including with the Welsh language broadcaster S4C.

It would also be preferable for candidates to have a business or residential base within Wales.