\n<\/p>\n
Andy Burnham\u2019s flagship promise to devolve power to the local level will not apply to the NHS if the current health bill passes into law in its present form (Andy Burnham to pledge \u2018good growth in every postcode\u2019 in devolution plan, 28 June).<\/p>\n
Currently, NHS foundation trusts have a statutory duty to have a council of governors. These are unpaid volunteers, democratically elected from the public and staff. They exist independent of NHS management to represent local views, and they hold the vital power to appoint the chair of the trust.<\/p>\n
However, the current health bill will remove this requirement. Under these proposals, local trusts will effectively be allowed to \u201cmark their own homework\u201d, while trust chairs will be appointed centrally from Whitehall. This is the absolute antithesis of Burnham\u2019s devolution proposals.<\/p>\n
Instead of centralisation, all trusts should have a statutory council of governors. By moving to a locally selected model rather than an elected one, this system would be significantly cheaper to run. These bodies must remain independent of NHS management, represent the public and staff, be charged with appointing trust chairs, and hold a statutory right to speak \u201ctruth to power\u201d at board meetings.<\/p>\n
Implementing such legislation is not just about democracy \u2013 it is a safety measure that would help prevent local NHS disasters before they are allowed to escalate. While wishing Andy Burnham well in his one-man odyssey to put our country right, I have to caution him on apparently seeking to devolve real power and money to individuals rather than democratically accountable organisations. If he is thinking of creating even more elected mayors, he had better make sure that these individuals are up to the task. The example of our local mayors is not encouraging. However, with current budgets of around \u00a325m each, they can\u2019t do that much damage.<\/p>\n If real money and power is at play, what he should be advocating is nothing short of a federal United Kingdom, on the lines of Germany. For this to work over here, the overwhelming economic power of England over Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland needs to be diluted by the creation of six or seven English directly elected regional assemblies. This would leave the federal parliament in London responsible for a narrow portfolio, including foreign affairs, defence and economic development, with a senate, drawing its members from the regions and nations of the UK, to scrutinise legislation. Andy Burnham\u2019s flagship promise to devolve power to the local level will not apply to the NHS if the current health bill passes into law in its present form (Andy Burnham to pledge \u2018good growth in every postcode\u2019 in devolution plan, 28 June). Currently, NHS foundation trusts have a statutory duty to have a council<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2094,13272,3581,10804,2196],"class_list":{"0":"post-50919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-andy","9":"tag-burnhams","10":"tag-devolution","11":"tag-drive","12":"tag-problems"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Daughne Taylor<\/strong>
Chair, National Lead Governors Association<\/em><\/p>\n
John Marriott<\/strong>
North Hykeham, Lincolnshire<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"