Explaining foundation trusts

 By becoming a Foundation Trust we can become more accountable to staff and local people through a Membership Community and an elected Governors’ Council which will work closely with the Trust’s Board of Directors to influence decision making and planning. We will also be better able to develop services to suit the needs of the communities we serve.

As not for profit, public benefit corporations, Foundation Trusts are still firmly part of the National Health Service family and subject to NHS quality standards, performance ratings and systems of inspection.

The NHS

NHS Foundation Trusts are part of the plans to improve and modernise the way the NHS provides services. A range of changes have taken place within the NHS over the past five years that have resulted in:

• shorter waiting times for appointments

• reductions in waiting times in A&E

• patients having greater choice over which hospital they are referred to

• hospital appointments being booked electronically from GP surgeries. 
  

Benefits… for the hospital

• We will have more say in how the hospital is run and financed, with more financial flexibility to allow us to invest our resources wisely, get better value for money and offer better patient care

• We will be more accountable to the local community for how we spend our budget so that it meets local needs as best as possible and be able to reflect the views of our local communities

• It will allow us to invest in new services to meet local needs and respond more rapidly to the changing health care needs of our local population

• It will allow us to recruit patients, staff and public members who will be able to strongly influence what we do, and help us to be genuinely patient-centred

• Frontline staff will be more involved in major decisions through their staff representatives on the Governors’ Council.

Benefits… for you

• Find out more about the work of the hospital and Trust through events and updates

• Receive regular information about the Trust and the work of the hospital through a members’ newsletter

• Give your views on services and the Trust’s plans for the future both in informal discussions and through surveys and formal consultation events

• Join and participate in special interest groups and take part in seminars and workshops on health issues

• Learn more about how to improve your own health and take part in health promotion campaigns in the community

• Elect representatives from the membership on to the Governors’ Council and/or stand for election yourself

• Become more informed in the work of the Trust and promote the work on the Trust in the local community.