Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Hazel Blears (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (public health), Department of Health; Salford, Labour)
I intend to deal specifically with amendment No. 206. It would remove the requirement to specify a minimum number of members in each constituency, and that would completely undermine the different arrangements for NHS foundation trusts. If no minimum is necessary, an NHS foundation trust could theoretically choose to have no membership at all. The election of a board of governors and a board of directors—a membership—is a fundamental requirement of the provision.
In recognition of the fact that the position of each NHS foundation trust will be different, we have not specified the number of members that ought to be in the constitution. That does not mean that specifying the minimum number of members is unnecessary. Every NHS foundation trust constitution must specify a minimum number of members in its public constituency and in its staff constituency. This is an important provision, and the minimum number of members in each constituency, together with other matters that must be included in the constitution—in particular the specification of the area of the foundation trust—will be an important guide for the Secretary of State for Health and the independent regulator in assessing whether an NHS foundation trust membership, and consequently its governance arrangements, is representative, fair and appropriate.