Workforce Mental-Health Clinical Governance Board Adviser

The mandate

The partnership offers counselling, occupational health, insurance navigation and crisis support through several vendors, but employees and managers cannot see where one service ends and another begins. Recent urgent referrals crossed countries and time zones, exposing inconsistent clinical escalation, consent and follow-up. Usage dashboards emphasise session volume and satisfaction while omitting abandoned referrals, provider capacity, serious incidents and continuity after benefit limits. The board needs assurance about governance, not access to individual clinical information.

The adviser will challenge a service-and-accountability map covering self-referral, manager concern, occupational health, emergency response, counselling, psychiatric referral, absence, return to work and insurance. The review must distinguish clinical duty, employer duty, manager responsibility and emergency-service authority; examine practitioner credentials, supervision, language and jurisdiction coverage; and identify where confidentiality promises or data flows could mislead workers. Outcome measures must respect clinical complexity and must never become employee-performance scoring.

The cadence includes a fortnightly session with people risk and occupational health, monthly board-committee attendance and two deep reviews with clinical vendors. The adviser will examine de-identified pathway samples, serious-incident governance, referral closure and provider quality evidence. A board note will describe observed controls, evidence gaps and reliance on licensed clinical, privacy and legal opinions without revealing individual cases or creating a shadow clinical record.

The adviser has no line authority and bears no executive responsibility for clinical care, employee relations, absence, insurance, safety, privacy or vendor management. The role cannot diagnose, treat, access identifiable clinical notes, direct crisis interventions, make fitness decisions, contact employees or approve providers. Licensed practitioners retain clinical responsibility; executives operate employer processes; emergency services and authorities retain statutory powers; directors decide risk appetite and resources.

The appointment runs ten months. Renewal requires a documented new governance question after the service-pathway review closes. Relationships with mental-health providers, insurers, occupational-health firms, digital-therapy vendors, professional bodies and employee representatives must be disclosed before appointment and updated after any market contact. Conflicted providers require recusal, and no referral, procurement or investment economics may be accepted.

Why the board wants this voice

People leaders see benefit access, clinicians see care episodes and managers see work impact, while the board must understand whether vulnerable employees can move safely between them. High utilisation does not demonstrate appropriate triage or continuity. An independent clinical-governance adviser can challenge the pathway and evidence without receiving protected clinical data or promoting a treatment vendor.

What you will own

• Challenge the support pathway across self-referral, manager concern, crisis response, counselling, specialist care, absence and return to work.
• Map clinical, employer, manager, insurer, vendor and emergency-service accountability at every referral and escalation boundary.
• Review provider credentials, supervision, capacity, language, jurisdiction, response times, serious incidents and continuity arrangements.
• Test confidentiality statements, consent, data minimisation, de-identification, reporting and prohibited performance use of health information.
• Advise on board indicators covering access delay, abandoned referral, escalation, continuity, quality concern and unresolved provider risk.
• Maintain an advisory record of evidence, dependencies, conflicts, recusals and recommendations without case-level clinical content.
• Deliver a closing clinical-governance charter, vendor challenge schedule, escalation map and residual-risk opinion.

Candidate qualifications

• Has governed workforce mental-health, occupational-health or employee-assistance services across several jurisdictions and clinical vendors.
• Understands crisis referral, clinical accountability, practitioner supervision, confidentiality, consent, serious incidents and continuity of care.
• Can advise boards without seeking identifiable health information or turning service metrics into employee assessment.
• Has challenged provider quality using pathway and governance evidence rather than satisfaction scores or utilisation alone.
• Brings credible collaboration with licensed clinicians, people leaders, privacy, insurers, safety and employee representatives.
• Is independent of treatment referrals, digital-health sales, insurance placement and provider procurement economics.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Stockholm sessions and both clinical-vendor governance reviews despite remote delivery.
• Brings clinical-governance depth in workforce services; general wellbeing programme leadership alone is insufficient.
• Will not diagnose, access individual notes, direct care, make fitness decisions or permit health data in performance scoring.
• Will disclose provider, insurer, occupational-health, digital-therapy and professional-body relationships before materials are shared.

1. 49 words maximum. Which metric would reveal a failing referral pathway despite high counselling utilisation?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you test crisis continuity without accessing identifiable clinical notes?
3. 49 words maximum. What accountability must remain with a licensed provider rather than an employer manager?