Welcome from Jane Collins
Chief Executive
The first meeting of our Members Council was another big step in achieving authorisation as a Foundation Trust.
We are so lucky to have both elected and appointed members of the council with such a wide range of age, experience and skills.
There was real enthusiasm at the meeting. Whatever people’s background, everyone supported our work and wanted to defend our values, but also ask the hospital Board probing questions when needed. The council plans to set goals for its first year, closely aligned to the hospital’s goals.
I emphasised that having a Members Council was new for us and being on one was new
for them, and so we all need to work out how best to work together. There are challenges.
Representing a national organisation could make connecting council members to their
electorates awkward. Picking priorities and using their experience effectively may not always
be straightforward and it’s a rather large group for some purposes. Breaking into smaller groups
for discussions seemed to work well, but I am sure we need to be flexible in how the council
meets and works.
We expect a decision on our Foundation Trust application in March. We have been on the road for some years, and all the delays have come down to one thing: a complicated Trust doing unusual things in an NHS which keeps changing! What the Members Council want is for us to continue to offer the best, to use our resources carefully to treat patients safely and well, to train children’s specialists and develop our research for the benefit of all children. We all want it to remain a place driven for ‘the child first and always’.
