The membership

As far as we understand it from NHSE and DHSC, when the requirement to have councils of governors is removed, the requirement to have a membership will also be removed. This makes intuitive sense since the ability to stand for election and to elect governor representatives are the only powers held by members of an FT. FTs are in any case free to engage, consult, inform and involve their staff, members of the public and partner/stakeholder organisations in the FT in other ways, whether or not having an FT membership is legally required.

It will be worthwhile communicating with staff and public FT members about the government’s proposals and your trust’s response to them. The legal requirement to have a membership will remain in place until the law changes, however the impetus to grow and/or enhance the diversity of your membership base may understandably feel less pressing. FTs will want to consider in the round the expectation set out in the 10-year health plan: "we expect the next generation of NHS FTs to put in place more dynamic arrangements to take account of patient, staff and stakeholder insight. This should include systematic measures of patient reported experiences and outcomes…". 

Some governors and staff we spoke to were keen to maintain communication and engagement with public members, and of course FTs will wish to sustain engagement and communication with the staff body and with key stakeholders. New ways in which public, staff and stakeholder involvement might be undertaken can be considered in the round as part of planning for next steps (see section 8).

There is an option to sustain FTs’ existing database of public members should the FT wish to use the database to support future public engagement and involvement. After all, in many cases, work has gone into recruiting and engaging a representative and interested group of members of the public: they are a potential source of input to whatever subsequent models of engagement and/or accountability might be developed.  

Data protection legislation (Article 6, UK GDPR) enables data to continue to be held provided the original consent given by the individual is still valid. While the original legal basis for holding members’ details will be removed if the Bill is passed, individuals’ original consent for FTs to contact them about the FT remains valid. FTs should of course contact members to inform them of the government’s proposals and offer the chance to opt out from future communications should they wish.

Many FTs have a contract in place for membership and/or election services. It is worth an early conversation with the providers of such services, who will be aware of the forthcoming Bill and most likely have already thought through its implications for their business. FTs may hold contracts which extend past the date at which the government intends to enact the new legislation, and it will be for individual FTs to engage with those businesses to understand their contractual position. Any future contractual arrangements should of course take account of the likelihood that elections cease to be held after 1 April 2027. It is to be hoped that all parties will work constructively to manage these uncertainties. 

The requirement to have an annual members meeting will be removed along with the council and FT membership, but it is likely that this will be replaced by the same requirement as NHS trusts currently have to hold a public meeting each year to present the audited annual accounts, annual report, and the auditor’s report. This is good practice in any case for a publicly funded organisation.