At the heart of being a Foundation Trust is local accountability. Governors have a pivotal role to play here.
Governors are elected by members of the Trust or appointed to represent stakeholder organisations. They are the individuals that bind a trust to its patients, service users, staff, and stakeholders.
Our Assembly of Governors is made up of:
- 27 members of the public
- 8 members of staff
- 4 people appointed by recognised stakeholder organisations.
Anyone who is a member of the Trust and over 16 years of age can become a public governor.
The general duties of the Assembly are to hold non-executive directors individually and collectively to account for the performance of the Board of Directors and to represent the interests of the members of the Trust as a whole, and the interests of the public.
In addition it has a number of other statutory duties, including:
- appointing and dismissing the Chair and Non-Executive directors
- determining the remuneration and terms and conditions of the Chair and Non-Executive directors
- appointing and terminating the Auditor
- approving the appointment of Chief Executive
- receiving the Annual Report and Accounts
- reviewing the forward plan as presented by the Board of Directors
In addition to their statutory duties, governors oversee the Trust’s membership strategy, ensuring representation and engagement levels are maintained and increased as appropriate. Governors keep a check on performance through such means as asking to receive documents produced by the Board, and requesting information updates from the Board. Governors are responsible for regularly feeding back information about the Trust’s vision and performance to the constituencies or stakeholder organisations they are representing.