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{slider title=”What is a Foundation Trust?” open=”false”}

NHS Foundation Trusts remain part of the NHS and provide services to patients on the basis of need and not ability to pay. However, they are set free, to a certain extent, from central government control. They possess three key characteristics that distinguish them from NHS Trusts:

Freedom to decide locally how to meet their obligations
Accountable to local people, who can become members and seek election to the Board of Governors
Authorised and monitored by Monitor – Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts.

Staff continue to be part of the NHS workforce and are entitled to be members of the NHS Pension Scheme.

{slider Why do you want to become an NHS Foundation Trust?}

We believe that achieving Foundation status will have benefits our patients, the public and members of staff.

These benefits might be:

• For the public: the opportunity to be involved in the development of the hospitals;
• For staff: the opportunity to become a member of the NHS Foundation Trust and elect staff members to the board of governors;
• For local partner organisations: the opportunity to sit on the board of governors and help develop local services that are co-ordinated and responsive to patient needs;

For our Trust, the opportunity to:

• Involve the patients, public and staff in the running of the organisation;
• Develop a wider range of services, known as unregulated services;
• Raise capital money without going through current NHS approvals processes;
• Retain financial surpluses made during a financial year.
• The government manifesto pledge for all Trusts to achieve FT status also means that this Trust only has a viable future in its current form as an FT.

{slider Does it mean you are opting out of the NHS?}

No. NHS Foundation Trusts are still part of the NHS ‘family’ and subject to NHS quality standards, performance targets and systems of inspection. We will still treat NHS patients but we will be controlled and run locally rather than nationally. There will be safeguards to ensure we continue to provide NHS services. There is a legal lock on the assets of NHS Foundation Trusts so that they cannot be sold. FTs are also bound by a legal duty to work in co-operation with others, such as primary care trusts (PCTs), to improve the quality of healthcare throughout the NHS.

{slider What differences will it make to the Trust? Why do you want to change?}

NHS Foundation Trusts will be ‘owned’ by the local communities they serve. Having local people, patients and staff on the board of governors encourages the trust to concentrate more on the needs of its local communities when looking at how it will achieve government targets. NHS Foundation Trusts have more financial freedoms to develop their services in the way they want; for example retaining any surpluses at the end of a financial year or raising capital money outside the current lengthy NHS approval processes.

{slider Does it mean the Trust will be privatised?}

The care NHS Foundation Trusts provide to NHS patients will continue to be delivered on the basis of need not ability to pay and will be free at the point of use.

NHS Foundation Trusts are legally required to use the assets they hold in ways that promote their primary purpose of providing NHS care to NHS patients. They are bound by a legal duty to work in co-operation with others to improve the quality of healthcare throughout the NHS.

{slider How will local people become more involved in the running of the Trust?}

NHS Foundation Trusts are democratic. Local people have the chance to become members and these members will elect their representatives to serve on the board of governors. They have an absolute majority. The board of governors holds the board of directors to account, electing the chair and non-executive members of the Board, and approving the appointment of the chief executive.

{slider How are NHS Foundation Trusts regulated?}

NHS Foundation Trusts are accountable to the local community through a board of governors and a board of directors. We would also still be bound by our obligation to consult locally about service developments, in particular with the county council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) as well as our PPI Forum and to health care commissioners who fund the NHS services provided at our hospitals.

Monitor authorises and regulates NHS foundation trusts making sure they are well-managed and financially strong so that they can deliver excellent healthcare for patients.

{slider How can I find out more?}

Visit the Monitor website.

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