By Jaimie Kaffash
26 April 2010
NHS foundation trusts are failing in their remit to include staff and patients in decision making, which is affecting patient care, nurses’ leaders have said.
The Royal College of Nursing issued a report today to coincide with its annual congress in Bournemouth this week. New foundations: the future of NHS trust providers shows that 49% of staff reported ‘closed board meetings’ and 46% said decisions reached in the boardroom did not get communicated down to the front line. Foundation trusts are required to involve staff in decision making.
Forty-two per cent of nurses had not seen improvements in the quality of care since their trust attained foundation trust status.
Howard Catton, policy head at the RCN, told Public Finance that the foundation trust model was not living up to the promise it showed when it was first launched in 2006. ‘There was scepticism at the launch of FTs about whether this was being driven by a market ethos or a genuine move to patient and staff involvement. We heard an awful lot about it being modelled on the co-operative movement and to many people that was very reassuring. We wanted to ask whether these organisations have delivered on this.
‘Clearly, however, nurses feel that board meetings are being held in secret and there isn’t any feedback. We’re not saying quality has not improved, but people are not seeing the evidence.’ He added that involving staff in decision making is vital in improving patient care and spotting potential problems early on.
Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said: ‘The FTN does not believe that the key question around openness and accountability is whether or not corporate board meetings are held in public – the RCN agrees that there will always be a closed part of the meeting, for example to discuss commercially sensitive issues or individual staff – it is whether stakeholders, and in particular, governors, have all the information they need to judge the performance of the corporate board and hold it to account.’
A spokeswoman for the FTN told PF that foundation trusts were eager to ensure more staff involvement. She added that it was up to managers and staff to ensure that membership was not only ‘tokenistic’ but led to a more active role in decision-making.
Delegates at the congress also heard that cuts are being made to frontline services. Catton said: ‘Politicians are talking about protecting the front line. But we are clearly picking up from nurses that, when they go to work, trust chief executives are saying they are having to make savings.’
The RCN has a ‘conservative’ estimate of 5,600 job losses, Catton added. He pointed to a letter from the chief executive of Salford NHS Trust that said that ‘all progress that has been made in the last few years is likely to be ruined’.
Catton said: ‘It might seem as though it is not a huge figure, but given that we have this political commitment to protect the front line, we wanted to raise this early to say there is evidence of this going on the ground. We absolutely realise that times are tough, but we want to guarantee that there will be no cuts to the front line.’
26 April 2010
NHS foundation trusts are failing in their remit to include staff and patients in decision making, which is affecting patient care, nurses’ leaders have said.
The Royal College of Nursing issued a report today to coincide with its annual congress in Bournemouth this week. New foundations: the future of NHS trust providers shows that 49% of staff reported ‘closed board meetings’ and 46% said decisions reached in the boardroom did not get communicated down to the front line. Foundation trusts are required to involve staff in decision making.
Forty-two per cent of nurses had not seen improvements in the quality of care since their trust attained foundation trust status.
Howard Catton, policy head at the RCN, told Public Finance that the foundation trust model was not living up to the promise it showed when it was first launched in 2006. ‘There was scepticism at the launch of FTs about whether this was being driven by a market ethos or a genuine move to patient and staff involvement. We heard an awful lot about it being modelled on the co-operative movement and to many people that was very reassuring. We wanted to ask whether these organisations have delivered on this.
‘Clearly, however, nurses feel that board meetings are being held in secret and there isn’t any feedback. We’re not saying quality has not improved, but people are not seeing the evidence.’ He added that involving staff in decision making is vital in improving patient care and spotting potential problems early on.
Sue Slipman, director of the Foundation Trust Network, said: ‘The FTN does not believe that the key question around openness and accountability is whether or not corporate board meetings are held in public – the RCN agrees that there will always be a closed part of the meeting, for example to discuss commercially sensitive issues or individual staff – it is whether stakeholders, and in particular, governors, have all the information they need to judge the performance of the corporate board and hold it to account.’
A spokeswoman for the FTN told PF that foundation trusts were eager to ensure more staff involvement. She added that it was up to managers and staff to ensure that membership was not only ‘tokenistic’ but led to a more active role in decision-making.
Delegates at the congress also heard that cuts are being made to frontline services. Catton said: ‘Politicians are talking about protecting the front line. But we are clearly picking up from nurses that, when they go to work, trust chief executives are saying they are having to make savings.’
The RCN has a ‘conservative’ estimate of 5,600 job losses, Catton added. He pointed to a letter from the chief executive of Salford NHS Trust that said that ‘all progress that has been made in the last few years is likely to be ruined’.
Catton said: ‘It might seem as though it is not a huge figure, but given that we have this political commitment to protect the front line, we wanted to raise this early to say there is evidence of this going on the ground. We absolutely realise that times are tough, but we want to guarantee that there will be no cuts to the front line.’
