What is a Foundation Trust?

A Foundation Trust is a new type of NHS Trust. Foundation Trusts are different as they are separate from Government (Department of Health) control and monitoring. Foundation Trusts run themselves as independent NHS organisations and become much more rooted in the local community. Foundation Trust (FT) status is also seen as a badge of good quality; FTs are the best performing Trusts in the country in terms of high quality clinical services and the financial and business management underpinning the Trust.

One of the main benefits of Foundation Trust status is membership. Foundation Trusts build up a large membership from the public, its patients and its staff, to work much more closely with the community it serves and better understand local health needs and expectations.

It is free to join as a member and means that we can hear much more about your expectations for your NHS hospital services. Members can be more involved in the Trust if they wish, by attending members’ events. Our members also take up the majority of seats on a new Council of Governors.

To sign up as a member, please click here.

The Council of Governors is a body of lay representatives and representatives of the organisations we work most closely with, who hold Trust Board (the Board of Directors) to account publicly and ensure that the future plans of the Trust are in the best interests of those it serves. Members directly influence the future plans of the Trust by providing their views and feedback to the Council of Governors. Members vote for Governors to represent them and their interests.

This means that the Trust, when it is a Foundation Trust, is much more accountable to those it serves and local people, patients and staff can have a much greater say in the plans of the Trust.

We ran a public consultation as part of our Foundation Trust application on our membership and arrangements for our Council of Governers. The results of this consultation are available here.

Kate Southgate, the Corporate Governance Manager is more than happy to answer any queries. Please telephone (01482) 675165 or email foundation.trust@hey.nhs.uk or fax (01482) 674196.

Foundation Trust Status Update - A Message from the Chairman and Interim Chief Executive

As you are aware, the Trust has an ambition to become a Foundation Trust in the future. In order to become a Foundation Trust, the organisation need to be able to show that we are delivering safe, effective and high quality services to our patients and service users as well as being financially sound and well managed overall.

This ambition remains a primary objective of the Trust. For us to be successful and achieve our full potential, we must wait for the arrival of our new Chief Executive before we proceed with our Foundation Trust application.

In view of this, the Trust Board has decided to defer the Trust's Foundation Trust application until the next financial year, 2011-12. Not only will this give the new Chief Executive time to settle in to the organisation but will also enable the Trust to address a number of outstanding issues. At this stage the Trust Board has agreed with the Strategic Health Authority that we weill start the process again in April 2011.

Please keep checking our website for further details.