Foundation Trusts
NHS Foundation Trusts are licensed as independent public benefit corporations, devolving decision-making from central government closer to local communities. While we’re still accountable to Parliament, our governance structure means that we are responsible for our own management and can ensure collaboration about our services with members of the community.
One of the key features of Foundation Trust status is the ability to work with an active and representative membership. From 24 February 2016 anyone living in England can become a member of the Trust and ensure that our services meet the needs and expectations of our public. Members can elect Governors to represents their views in the running of the organisation, ensuring that we truly respond to the needs of the local communities and take into account the views of the public in service development and redesign. We also have Stakeholder Governors, who represent the views of the organisations we work closely with to provide services.
Ensuring the safety and standards of Foundation Trusts is the responsibility of several different bodies. Internally, we have our Board of Directors who are collectively responsible for the delivery of high quality care. NHS Improvement (formerly Monitor), the independent regulator of Foundation Trusts, has the power to intervene in how a Trust is run if it fails to meet standards or breaches the terms of its licence. The Care Quality Commission is responsible for inspecting all hospitals in England to ensure they are meeting national standards and providing services which are ‘safe’, ‘effective’, ‘responsive’, ‘well led’ and ‘caring’.
We have been an NHS Foundation Trust since 1 January 2005.
The Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors has responsibility for the effective day to day management of the Trust, developing the Trust’s longer term strategy and ensuring a strong culture and leadership is in place to deliver the strategic objectives. The Board comprises both Executive and Non-Executive Directors, and acts as a unitary Board, to provide appropriate accountability and strong decision making. .
Meetings are held once a month, allowing the Directors to approve new strategies, trust wide polices, scrutinise performance and make decisions about significant investments and development to provide effective and efficient, high quality and safe patient care every day. You can find out more about our Directors here.
Our structure
To ensure that all areas of the Trust are fairly represented and managed, our departments and services are organised into four different directorates:
- Planned and Surgical Care
- Community and Children’s Services
- Long Term and Unscheduled Care; and
- Corporate Services (including Workforce, Finance and IT)
- Estates and Facilities (provided by Harrogate Integrated Facilities (HIF), a wholly owned subsidiary company of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust)
Our Organisational Structure demonstrates the directorate network.
Our Constitution also describes how the Trust is ‘governed’ including the role and responsibilities of the Board of Directors and the Council of Governors. Please click here to access a copy of the Constitution.
Our Terms of reference
- Board of Directors Terms of Reference (PDF 233kb)
- Audit Committee Terms of Reference (PDF 167kb)
- People and Culture Committee Terms of Reference (PDF 372kb)
- Quality Committee Terms of Reference (PDF 79kb)
- Remuneration Committee Terms of Reference (PDF 72kb)
- Resources Committee Terms of Reference (PDF 296kb)