Issue - items at meetings - South East Coast Ambulance Trust: Foundation Trust Application

Report of the Director of Strategy and Governance on the South East Coast Amulance Trust (SECamb) application for NHS Foundation Trust status. Geraint Davies, SECamb Director of Corporate Affairs and Service Development, will present this item (papers attached).

23.1    Geraint Davies, SECamb Director of Corporate Affairs and Service Development, introduced this item.

23.2    In answer to questions as to how achieving Foundation Trust status would enable the trust to improve its services, members were told that Foundation Trusts are able to borrow commercially to improve their services. This would enable developments to be made (for instance in training more paramedics or renewing the trust’s vehicle fleet) which would either not be possible under SECamb’s current financial arrangements, or which would take much longer to enact.

23.3    In response to a query as to how a regional ambulance trust could hope to engage potential members, the committee was told that SECamb has already recruited 1300 people eager to become members. Given the trust’s excellent history of public involvement, SECamb is confident that it can attract and maintain a broad and engaged membership.

23.4    Mr Davies told members about SECamb plans to develop its services in Brighton & Hove, moving away from the use of large ambulance stations in a few locations to having ambulances ‘stationed’ in parking places across the city. This will improve call-out times, as ambulances can be stationed near to the areas of greatest demand (e.g. the city centre).

23.5    Several members noted that there were potential problems with SECamb’s governance structure, as the trust has to include representation from all parts of the area it covers (Sussex, Kent and Surrey), but must also ensure that it does not end up with an unmanageably large Board of Governors. SECamb’s proposed governance structure involves a number of areas or interest groups being represented by single Governors, which begs a number of questions, including whether a single person can adequately represent the interests of a city such as Brighton & Hove, what to do when a Governor cannot make a scheduled meeting etc. Mr Davies assured members that the trust was doing all that it could to deal with these potential difficulties, including co-ordinating Board meetings around the availability of Governors.

23.6    RESOLVED – That SECamb’s approach to its Foundation Trust application be approved by the committee.