ROYAL SURREY COUNTY HOSPITAL, NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Transcription

1 ROYAL SURREY COUNTY HOSPITAL, NHS FOUNDATION TRUST MINUTES OF THE NINETEENTH COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2013, ROOM B2 OF THE EDUCATION CENTRE, ROYAL SURREY COUNTY HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD * Peter Dunt Chairman * Elspeth Allpress Patient governor Mike Band Waverley Borough Council *Angela Barker Patient governor *Jim Blake Public governor Guildford * Patrick Brown Patient governor * David Chuter Patient governor *Lucy Clements Staff governor Ancillary Admin and Other Stephen Craske Public governor Guildford *Margaret Dolman Patient governor * Helen Edwards Public governor Woking * John Gamble Public governor East Hants *Emma Haines Public governor Mole Valley * Tom Jordan Staff governor Scientific, Technical & allied health professionals *Philip McNamara Surrey West Sussex and Hampshire Cancer Network *Christopher Marks Staff governor Medical & dental *Vincent Marks Public governor Waverley Andrew Moncreiff Public governor - Chichester *Bruce Philpott Public governor East Hants * Tim Reeder Public governor Mole Valley * Brian Richards Public governor Waverley *Claire Richardson Staff governor Nursing & midwifery Iseult Roche Appointed Governor _ Guildford Borough Council Ray Rogers Public governor Guildford *Sue Rout *Barbara Rushton (part) Hampshire PCT Sheila Smith Public governor Waverley *Natalie Straughen Staff governor other staff *Ishbel Veitch Appointed governor Surrey LINk *Jan Whitby Public governor Woking Fiona White Appointed governor Surrey County Council (* = present ) 1

2 IN ATTENDANCE: John Denning Non-executive Director Joanne Green Company Secretary 15/13 CHAIRMAN S WELCOME AND BUSINESS ACTION The Chairman welcomed 2 new governors, Lucy Clements who had recently been elected unopposed as a staff governor for the Ancillary, Admin and Other constituency and Prof Lisa Roberts who had recently appointed to serve as the University of Surrey s representative. 16/13 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from: Andrew Moncreiff Iseult Roche Ray Rogers Dr Barbara Rushton Sheila Smith Fiona White Jacqui Burke Gary Crouch Debbie Glenn Tony Harris Nick Moberly Paul Biddle Dr Christopher Tibbs Alf Turner Louise Stead 17/13 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS None declared. 18/13 MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 17 JANUARY 2013 The Minutes of the Council of Governors meeting held on 17 January 2013 were confirmed and signed subject to the following amendment: (a) Minute 05/13 Matters Arising, Page 5, para. 2, line 5: "...on the role of lead Governor...". Correction: "...for their respective presentations, on "The Role of Governors", which contained a question and answer 2

3 session devised by the FTGA, and on the...". (b) Minute 10/13 Role and Appointment of Lead Governor Page 13, para. 6, line 4-8: "Jan Whitby (Public-Woking) gave a presentation on...". Correction: "Jan Whitby (Public-Woking) had been asked by other Governors, at the earlier pre-governors' meeting, to give a presentation to all Governors to clarify the statutory duties of the Lead Governor, as defined by Monitor. The lecture was wholly based on the publication entitled "Your statutory duties: a draft reference guide for NHS foundation trust governors", dated 19 th December 2012". (c) Minute 12/13 Open Forum Specific issues from governors of Trust-wide interest/value Page 15, para 5, lines 1-4: "Jan Whitby (Public-Woking) raised the issue of ear plugs...". Correction: "Jan Whitby (Public-Woking) asked whether her suggestion, at a previous Governors' Council meeting, about the adoption of ear plugs for use by patients at night to deal with noise had been taken forward. She was delighted to hear that it had been implemented". 19/13 MATTERS ARISING Minute 42/12 Vitalpac demo the Chairman advised a presentation would be made to the next meeting in May JG/PB Minute 07/13 the Chairman advised that improvements to the web site were in progress. Minute 08/13 the Chairman advised that Tom Jordan had subsequently advised that he did not wish to attend the Nominations Committee. Minute 09/13 the FTGA had been advised about the Trust s appointments Minute 12/13 a date for the joint strategy meeting had been arranged (14 March 2013, 5.30pm) and all governors were encouraged to attend. Governors liability advice was awaited from the NHSLA. Medical records improvements were ongoing and a full 3

4 report would be submitted to the next meeting. 20/13 LEAD GOVERNOR FUTURE ROLE The Council of Governors was reminded that at the meeting held on 17 January 2013 the Company Secretary had submitted a report on the role and future appointment of the Lead Governor. Dr Jan Whitby, a public governor for Woking, had also made a presentation to the meeting about the role as she and a large number of other governors felt the opportunity should be taken to discuss the future role of the Lead Governor. At the meeting, following the presentation and discussion, the Council decided that the role should continue and that the content of the job (the job description) should be discussed and agreed by the Council. Following the meeting and concerns expressed by a number of governors, the Chairman had suspended the proposed election for the role, pending the holding of a special meeting of the Council to discuss and agree the future role. The Company Secretary submitted a full report about the role of the Lead Governor and possible future options, listed below, for the role at the Trust which was considered by governors: To have the role purely as a contact point in circumstances where it would not be appropriate for Monitor to contact the Chairman and vice versa (Option A) As above plus ex officio membership of the Nominations Committee (as currently) (Option B) To have an enhanced role whereby the Lead Governor had a number of additional duties (Option C). To have 2 governors covering the role(s) set out above i.e. 1 to be the Lead Governor for Monitor purposes and 1 to deal with the additional duties (option D) The governors had held a meeting prior to the formal meeting and had discussed in detail the various options. Helen Edwards (Public Woking) fed back to the meeting the conclusions reached as follows: That the Council of Governors should appoint 2 Lead Governors. One to undertake the role set out in option B above and one to undertake the role set out in option D above with additional duties as follows: to consult routinely with governors regarding the planning and preparation of the Council s agenda 4

5 to provide input into the Chairman s appraisal on behalf of the Council to take an active role in the activities of the Council chairing any governor pre meetings Governors had also agreed that they would appoint individual governors to act as points of contact for the Chairman which should be agreed at the next meeting. Elections should be held by secret ballot for both the Lead Governor roles which should be held as soon as possible. The report had enclosed sample job descriptions from various Trusts and Helen advised that governors wished to base the Trust s job descriptions on the example from North East London. In view of the sensitivity surrounding the role, the Chairman asked each governor to comment on the content of the job descriptions and following a suggestion made by Elspeth Allpress (Patient) the Council of Governors AGREED that the Monitor role should be held by an elected governor unless no nominations were forthcoming from such constituencies, in which case an appointed governor would be eligible to be appointed. Developing on the point raised above about governors being appointed as contact points, the Council of Governors AGREED that where relevant governors should chair committees of the Council of Governors which would be agreed at the next Council of Governors meeting. The Chairman was supportive of the suggestion and would also wish Non-executive Directors to continue to have close contact with the committees as he felt their chairmanship to date had been very useful. There was also discussion about the election process for the Lead Governor roles and following discussion, which included the possibility of self nomination, it was AGREED that any nominees should be proposed and seconded with the election process starting afresh. The content of the 2 job descriptions are attached as an annex to these minutes. 21/13 THE FRANCIS REPORT The Chairman had recently attended a seminar presented by Robert Francis QC and provided feedback to governors on the event and encouraged governors to read the executive summary of the report and its recommendations. 22/13 VALUES AND BEHAVIOURS CHECK All present felt the meeting had been positive. 5

6 ANNEX LEAD GOVERNOR (MONITOR) ROLE DESCRIPTION The role: To be an external point of contact for Monitor when appropriate To chair meetings of the Council of Governors which cannot be chaired by the Trust Chair, Vice-Chair or other Non Executive due to a conflict of interest To provide input into the Chair s appraisal on behalf of the Council of Governors To take an active role in the activities of the Council of Governors The Person Must be an elected Governor Term of office: The Lead Governor will be appointed for a term of one year and will be subject to annual re-election A Governor may hold the position of Lead Governor for a maximum of three consecutive terms This role is not subject to remuneration, although the cost of travel or other expenses incurred will be met by the Trust 6

7 PRE MEETING CHAIR ROLE DESCRIPTION The role: to consult routinely with governors regarding the planning and preparation of the Council s agenda to take an active role in the activities of the Council chairing any governor pre meetings Term of office: The Pre-meeting Chair will be appointed for a term of one year and will be subject to annual re-election Governors to decide whether the number of consecutive terms a governor may hold the position of Pre-meeting Chair should be limited to a maximum of three consecutive terms This role is not subject to remuneration, although the cost of travel or other expenses incurred will be met by the Trust 7