The Christie Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22

Annual Governance Statement

concern. As part of the process, the investigation included interviews with various staff members. The investigation concluded in 2021 and the report was published in January 2022. There were a number of recommendations made and these have been completed by the Trust and progress reported through the Quality Assurance Committee. NHSEI confirmed that there would be no further regulatory action. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 The Modern Slavery Act 2015 establishes a duty for commercial organisations to prepare an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. This is a board approved statement of the steps the organisation has taken during the financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of its supply chains or in any part of its own business. Our statement can be found in the trust publications section of our website. NHS Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) assurance process The trust participates in an annual self assessment process against the NHS Core Standards for EPRR. For 2021/22 the Trust were assessed against fewer core standards than usual, to reflect the work involved for our continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of the self assessment for 2021/22 was that the Trust declared substantial compliance for its readiness for being able to effectively respond to major, critical and business continuity

The process that has been applied in maintaining and reviewing the effectiveness of the system of internal control has been reviewed by: • The Board; through consideration of key objectives and the management of principal risks to those objectives within the Assurance Framework, which is presented at board meetings • The Audit Committee; by reviewing and monitoring the opinions and reports provided by both internal and external audit • The Quality Assurance Committee; by reviewing and monitoring the opinions and reports provided by both internal and external audit • The Risk and Quality Governance Committee; by implementing and reviewing clinical governance and risk management arrangements and receiving reports from the sub risk committees • External assessments of services NHS England/Improvement (NHSE/I) Independent Investigation During 2020/21 some concerns were raised by a small number of staff at The Christie directly to the North West Region Freedom to Speak Up Guardian. These concerns related to the research and innovation division. NHSE/I North West commissioned an independent investigation into those concerns. NHSE/I advised the Trust that the concerns raised did not relate to patient care in any way. Commissioning an independent investigation is part of the standard process when dealing with a Freedom to Speak Up

147