Succession planning should not only appear at Board when someone resigns. Strong organisations treat leadership continuity as an assurance issue, reviewing critical roles, readiness gaps, inclusive progression and development outcomes before risk becomes urgent.
Critical role visibility
- Which roles would create the greatest delivery, quality, financial or reputational risk if they became vacant in the next 6 months?
- Do we have a shared definition of critical roles across executive, clinical, operational and corporate leadership?
- Are critical roles reviewed alongside strategy, service change and workforce risk?
- What is our current exposure to single points of leadership failure?
Succession readiness
- Can we identify ready-now, ready-soon and future potential successors for our most critical roles?
- What evidence supports our judgement of readiness?
- Are successors prepared for the strategic, political and system demands of the role, not just the operational tasks?
- What happens when there is no credible successor?
Inclusive leadership pipelines
- Which groups are visible in the workforce but missing from progression and succession conversations?
- Who receives sponsorship, stretch assignments and Board-level exposure?
- Are readiness criteria transparent, consistently applied and reviewed for bias?
- How does our succession approach support equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging in practice?
Development infrastructure
- Are leadership development, mentoring, coaching and talent reviews connected to the same outcomes?
- Can we see whether development activity is improving readiness?
- Do leaders have access to support at key transition points?
- Are sub-board leaders being developed for future system leadership, not only current operational delivery?
Board assurance
- How often does the Board or relevant committee review leadership pipeline risk?
- What leading indicators do we use to track leadership continuity?
- Are talent, succession and inclusion discussed as strategic risks or annual HR updates?
- What decisions do we expect from the Board after reviewing succession evidence?
Practical next steps
- Identify critical roles.
- Map readiness honestly.
- Review inclusion and sponsorship.
- Connect development activity to readiness gaps.
- Create a regular Board assurance rhythm.