Governor Focus conference: Key highlights, ideas and inspiration

🎉 Celebrating Volunteers Week

Foundation trust governors are not only an essential part of the governance framework of a foundation trust, but this is also a voluntary role. To celebrate the contribution that governors make to the NHS, we were delighted to host our annual Governor Focus conference during Volunteers Week. Our flagship event brought together more than 270 NHS governors from over 110 foundation trusts to connect, share ideas and learn from each other.

🔦 Conference highlights

Paul Devlin (chair at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust) expertly opened the event and welcomed governors from across the country. Saffron Cordery – deputy chief executive at NHS Providers provided a thought-provoking policy update. Her session focused on the key challenges facing governors today, including the potential implications of the 10-year health plan for governors, and a continued need for social care reform.

In addition, speakers from within the NHS as well as wider organisations joined a panel discussion to celebrate the positive impact of volunteers. Aishah Farooq shared her experience as a young governor and the power of youth voice, Dave Stott shared how organisations can benefit from volunteers, and Paul Devlin highlighted the importance of the governor role in the NHS.

🤝 Showcasing good practice

Each year, we invite foundation trusts to share innovative ways they are working with their councils of governors. This year’s showcases were:

• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust’s youth council. Healthwatch Norfolk took on the engagement and recruitment work under the supervision and direction of some Governors, and with direct input into the trust board. The Youth Council aims to ensure that Governors get an idea of the future views and priorities of younger people. 
• Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust’s governor dashboard. Governors need a certain level of information available to them to carry out their role of holding to account. Coupled with the need to provide basic information on the performance of the trust, it was agreed to develop a specific report for their Governors – the Governor Dashboard. This report is produced for each of their Council meetings and provides tailor made information for their Governors, so they can focus on their role of holding non-executive directors to account.

Governors shared ideas and good practice in small, facilitated groups for an invaluable session that left many feeling inspired, better connected, and reassured that others face similar challenges.

📈 Looking ahead

We’re thrilled that 99% of attendees would recommend the event—thank you for making it a success! We look forward to continuing the conversation next year. If you’d like to contribute a case study to a future programme, please get in touch.