The Christie NHS FT Annual Report & Accounts 2019-20

Directors’ Report

discussion is held on the key points arising from the review. The focus of the discussion is on those areas which clearly need improvement or where there is great variation in answers. Board appointments All non-executive director appointments made since 1 st April 2007, including the Chairman, were made by the nominations committee and were approved by the council of governors. The Chairman and non-executive directors are appointed for an initial period of 3 years and may be removed by the council of governors in accordance with Annex 6, paragraph 2, of our constitution. Our executive directors are appointed through an open competition panel; their contracts of employment do not contain an expiry date. Board meetings and committees The board supports the Nolan principles and makes the majority of its decisions in meetings open to the public. The board met in public and in private eight times during 2019-20. It also held four informal board time outs, one of which was a joint board and governor time out; this afforded the opportunity for our governors to input into discussions around the Trust’s current and future plans. The board delegates some of its work to sub committees. They receive a copy of the full minutes of these meetings. This helps the assurance committees to demonstrate a stronger audit trail of the work of their committee as well as steering their agenda in line with key risks (as identified in the Board Assurance Framework and divisional risks). Attendance by directors at board and subcommittee meetings is shown toward the end of this section.

The board considers that all the non-executive directors are independent and the Chairman was independent on appointment (as required by the NHS Foundation Trust Code of Governance provision B.1.1). Kathryn Riddle is the senior non-executive director and the designated link to the governors in case they have concerns they feel they cannot raise with the chairman or any of the executive directors. She also leads the appraisal process for the Chairman. During 2019-20 there was one change to the membership of the board of directors. Jackie Bird, Chief Nurse & Executive Director of Quality left the organisation on 31 st August 2019 to take up post as Chief Nurse for the North West for NHS England/Improvement. Julie Gray acted into this role on an interim basis from 1 st September 2019. Process for evaluation of performance In line with the NHS Foundation Trust Code of Governance (provision B.6), all directors have an annual performance appraisal and a personal development plan. The Chief Executive is responsible for the performance appraisal of the executive directors. The performance of the Chief Executive is reviewed by the Chairman. The results of these appraisals are reported to the Trust’s remuneration committee. The performance of the non-executive directors is reviewed by the Chairman and is reported to the council of governors, using a process agreed by the council of governors. The performance of the Chairman is reviewed by the non-executive directors led by the senior independent director in a process agreed by the council of governors. The board of directors and the audit and quality assurance committees undertake an annual self assessment exercise to ascertain their effectiveness. The responses are collated and

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