We believe that the freedoms and flexibility
that come with being an NHS foundation trust will provide real
benefits for our patients, our Service, staff and organisations we
work with in the following way:
- more relevant and direct engagement with
patients, the public, and our staff through their
membership of our foundation trust which will influence
our service development
- more opportunities for investment and
innovation because of financial freedoms
- greater security and opportunities for
longer-term planning, due to three-year contract terms (currently
contracts are agreed year by year), and
- recognition as an excellent organisation as
we will undergo a rigorous development and assessment process to
become an NHS foundation trust.
We are committed to realising these benefits and have
prioritised progressing our foundation trust application as an
action for 2010/11. This is in line with the recent government
white paper ‘Liberating
the NHS’ which states that all NHS trusts will
become foundation trusts by 2013/14.