Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital

110 5. Our Governors and Members
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13
2. Being satisfied that the Board has the right people with the right mix of skills to perform their role
effectively
Existing
New options/requirements
• Working with the Board to identify priorities for the
skills and experience required to maintain an effective
Board
The Nominations Committee has the delegated authority to
develop and run recruitment processes that require approval
by the CoG.
• The CoG has the power to remove the Chairman or NEDs
This power can be used if the CoG comes to a collective
view that individuals in question are not performing
effectively or not adding value to the effectiveness of the
Board.
• Receiving an overview of the relative effectiveness of
the NEDs (from the Chairman) and Chairman (from the
Senior Independent Director) through detailed feedback
to the Nominations Committee (as well as broader
feedback to the CoG as a whole)
• Determine the pay and conditions of NEDs by having a
NED Remuneration Committee that proposes changes
to NED Remuneration for approval by the CoG
• Approving the appointment of the Chief Executive
• Receiving an annual overview of Board development
from the Chairman
• Receiving any external analysis on Board effectiveness
from external parties
CoG duty to represent the
interests of the Members of the
Trust
The duty to represent the interests of
Members of the Trust and the wider
public is new. However, as above, the
current Code of Governance states that
the CoG is “responsible for representing
the interests of NHS Foundation Trust
Members and partner organisations in the
local health economy in the governance
of the NHS Foundation Trust.”
The main differences are:
• The most significant change,
which relates to the greater focus
on local accountability given the
changing role of Monitor, is clear
in the new powers granted to the
CoG in relation to issues such as
mergers and acquisitions, private
patient income, and significant
transactions
• The CoG has a brief to represent
the views of the public (and not
just members).
The statutory duty and the associated
powers imply that the CoG has a
role both in representing the views
of the members and public to the
Trust but in addition, that it has
powers designed to ensure that the
interests of members/public are taken
into consideration within the newly
emerging healthcare context. This
latter change results from the shift in
Monitor’s role in which it will no longer
have a compliance function.
The CoG duty to represent the
views of the public is currently
addressed via Members' Say and
other research mechanisms (on the
basis that the current membership is
broadly representative of the wider
community).
These research methods along with
other planned activities to reach out
to under-represented groups would
appear to be reasonably well covered
currently.