Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Royal Bournemouth Hospital

Governance ReportChairman. The Chief Executive undertookperformance appraisals of the executivedirectors and the Chief Executive’sperformance was appraised by theChairman.The Board of Directors, and each ofits committees, evaluates its ownperformance annually and undertake amore formal evaluation every three years.Each director has declared their interestsat a public meeting. The register ofinterests is held by the Trust Secretaryand is available for inspection byarrangement. This includes the othersignificant commitments of the Chairmanwhich have not changed during the yearunder report.The Board of Directors considers theTrust to be fully compliant with theprinciples of The NHS Foundation TrustCode of Governance as well as with theprovisions of the Code in all respects,save as to paragraphs A1.3, A3.2 andC2.2 where there are other arrangementsin place.6.2 Audit CommitteeThe Trust’s Audit Committee meetsat least quarterly and representativesof external audit, internal audit andthe counter fraud service attend thesemeetings. The Director of Finance,Director of Nursing and Midwifery andrepresentatives from the risk managementteams also regularly attend meetings atthe request of the chairman. The ChiefOperating Officer will also regularly attendmeetings going forward and the ChiefExecutive, Director of Human Resourcesand Director of Service Developmenthave attended meetings at the requestof the Chairman. The Audit Committeemet five times during the year. Thecommittee members are all non-executivedirectors and include the Chairman of theHealthcare Assurance Committee. During2012/13 the members were:Meetings of the Audit CommitteeNameMeetingsattendedSteven Peacock (Chairman) 5David Bennett 3Pankaj Davé 4The Audit Committee’s duties cover thefollowing areas:Internal control risk managementand corporate governanceThe committee reviews the establishmentand maintenance of an effective systemof internal control, risk management andcorporate governance, with particularreference to the Trust’s AssuranceFramework.In particular, the committee reviews theadequacy of:l all risks and control related disclosurestatements, together with anyaccompanying Head of Internal Auditstatement, prior to endorsement bythe Boardl the structure, processes andresponsibilities for identifying andmanaging key risks facing theorganisationl the operational effectiveness ofrelevant policies and proceduresincluding those related to fraud andcorruption and economy, efficiencyand effectiveness in the use ofresourcesl the scope, maintenance and use ofthe Assurance Frameworkl the Trust’s clinical audit programmeInternal auditThe committee:l appoints the internal auditors, sets theaudit fee and resolves any questionsof resignation and dismissall ensures that the internal auditfunction is adequately resourced andhas appropriate standing within theorganisation108Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13