Risk appetite for boards

Set and embed your board’s risk appetite with clarity and confidence

The board holds overall responsibility for risk. Understanding and articulating your board’s risk appetite is critical for effective decision-making and strategic alignment. This session gives board members the tools and frameworks to define, communicate and apply risk appetite in practice across all areas of your organisation.

Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, you’ll explore how risk appetite is an integral part of your risk management framework and ensure your trust’s approach supports good governance.

Key takeaways

1. Reinforce your understanding of risk appetite and its impact on decision-making.
2. Learn the role of risk appetite in strengthening risk management.
3. Discover a leading approach to setting and embedding board-level risk appetite.
4. Gain practical skills to build, implement, and sustain an effective risk appetite.
5. Network with peers to share challenges and collaborate on solutions.

Risk is a critical part of board leadership and risk appetite defines the boundaries of risk an organisation is willing to take. When clearly defined and consistently applied, it supports better decision-making, stronger assurance, and a more confident approach  organisational risk management.

In a system facing growing complexity, financial pressure and political scrutiny, boards need a shared understanding of how much risk they are willing to take and why. Without this, it’s easy to default to risk aversion or inconsistency, which can stall innovation, weaken accountability, and create tension between ambition and assurance.

This course supports you to move from theory to practice: building the skills, language and alignment needed to set, communicate and embed a robust risk appetite that underpins strategic delivery. The session clearly sets how a well-constructed risk appetite can support Board decision making and clarify how a trust’s strategies can be evaluated.

• An overview of what risk appetite is and how it drives decision making.
• Understand the role of risk appetite in effective risk management.
• How to build and implement an effective risk appetite approach within your organisation.
• Explore industry-led approaches to setting an embedding board-level risk appetite.

This is a half-day course, with estimated timings of 9:30am to 12:30pm (subject to change).

Open to NHS Providers members and non-members.

Member: £196 (exc. VAT) | £235.20 (incl. VAT)
Associate member: £245 (exc. VAT) | £294 (incl. VAT)
Non member: £295 (exc. VAT) | £354 (incl. VAT)

You will need to provide a purchase order number at booking to confirm your place on this course. Card payments are also accepted.

Follow the 'Book now' link at the top of this page to book your place. You will need to create an account if you have not already done so.

• Chairs and chief executives.
• Executive directors.
• Non-executive directors.
• Company secretaries.
• Individuals that lead the organisation’s risk management.