How do I get the Foundation Trust Governors I want?

As somebody who has been immersed in the NHS Foundation Trust sector for the past 3 years, people often ask me in ‘FT’ circles (I suspect only half-joking), how to get the governors they want. More specifically, “how do I avoid having this particular awkward do-gooder with a first class degree in obstructive behaviour from the National Institute for Aggressive Soapboxing (NIAS), from making my life as Governor co-ordinator extremely difficult?” 

The short answer - you don’t.  You can’t handpick Governors.  They have to nominate themselves and then be elected by your Trust’s membership.  The Department of Health’s model election rules on fairness contain several clauses to ensure a trust does not seek to promote a specific candidate or candidates, at the expense of the electoral prospects of one or more other candidates. And rightly so!

There is a way you can filter your governors though: and this is helpful to you, them, your membership, and to your trust - and it doesn’t break any rules:  You create a framework whereby they filter themselves naturally: through good education, communication and support. 

• Let your aspirant governors know exactly what is involved: significant time commitments, what the relevant legislation says about their responsibilities and obligations; tell them about the amount of reading and learning they will need to do, the meetings they will attend, the number of people they have to communicate with, show their face to, and represent – don’t over-egg the pudding but let them know the truth. 
 
• This is an important role, especially given the current climate in the NHS.  If you let people know what is really involved, you will find that the people who choose to stand based on a truly informed decision are doing so for the right reasons.   
 
• Gradually step up the commitment required through the process.  For Kent Community Healthcare NHS Trust we started with a large pool of enthusiastic aspirant governors. Over 100 of them attended one of the four workshops based on the first module of the MES Governor Foundations Training programme, “Foundation Trusts and the Role of a Governor”. 
 
• The second module saw this initial interested group of 100 filtered down to 31 aspirant governors -attending one central workshop.  By this stage they were more committed, had well-managed expectations and were keen to learn “How to stand for election”, the subject of Module 2 of MES’s Governor Foundations Programme.
 
• Module 2 covered all the model election rules, giving practical advice on how to nominate yourself and stand for election, fill out a nominations form, including the declaration of financial or political interests; the elections process and timetable with all the key milestones, deadlines, publications and documents.  It also looked in detail at how to write and submit an election statement and how to handle your election campaign.

Everyone, including me, greatly enjoyed the session and it was nice to get a round of applause at the end!