Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
5:45 pm
Ms Hazel Blears (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (public health), Department of Health; Salford, Labour)
That refers to
''the practice and procedure of the board''.
Sub-paragraph (2) states:
''The constitution may make further provision about the board.''
That covers the point that I dealt with previously in relation to the persons who can become members of the board as partners in the organisation; a constitution can make provision for partners, such as local authority members and even trade union members—or the defence medical constituency that was referred to by the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison)—to become members of the board and play an active part. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire made a point about the role of voluntary organisations: it is possible that they could be put forward by the NHS foundation trust as partners in the organisation. That is why paragraph 12(2) is necessary: it is not only about practice and procedure; it is about membership, too.
I now turn to amendment No. 178. The Bill does not specify the number of times that the board of governors must meet. Arrangements for meetings have to be agreed locally. It would be wrong to dictate from the centre exactly how the boards should operate. They might want to operate in different ways.
Hon. Members must get this idea right: when these bodies come forward with their constitution they have to have local support. If one of them has a constitution that states that they will meet only once a year, I cannot envisage that the people who have elected their members to the board of governors will be content with that. It is right and proper that the constitution should specify how many times they will meet, how they will meet, and how they will conduct their affairs. I ask hon. Members to accept the principal of local devolution that we are trying to establish.