We want to hear from all parts of the community. We want a membership reflecting where our patients come from in the country and also users drawn from the full range of services.
We aim in the long term to recruit a membership whose ethnic diversity is close to that of our patients. We are keen to hear quieter voices and those from socially excluded groups.
Our Foundation Trust membership is free and open to anyone in England and Wales aged over 10 years who shares our vision.
People can choose their own level of involvement, but we see membership as being the main way for patients, their families and the public to be directly involved in improving what we do. We have already recruited more than 8,400 members, around 1,000 of which are young people. And we have begun to use them in a variety of ways to help us improve.
Electing the Members’ Council is one important way members will be involved. We hope that members will feel a real sense of involvement and achievement as we improve the hospital together.
We already seek to value, involve and develop our staff, who are highly committed to the organisation and its values. We believe staff membership offers greater involvement in our strategic direction and purpose, and this will reinforce this sense of staff ownership.
Staff union representatives are closely involved in how we plan our Foundation Trust application and how we consult staff on it.
