NHS Foundation Trusts

A foundation trust is a part of the National Health Service in England. They have some independence from the Department of Health and Social Care. As of March 2019 there were 151 foundation trusts.

They were started by  Alan Milburn in 2002. The plan was that all the  NHS trusts should become Foundation Trusts and run independently.  This was an important part of the plan to set up a market system in the NHS which was the main idea of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.  Foundation trusts had members - a bit like shareholders - and the members elected a council of governors - a bit like company directors.  In 2014 a report said that on the whole after 10 years, "Foundation Trusts [had]... not deepened in terms of democratic practice and participation".

By 2016, the differences between foundation trusts and other NHS trusts were small. Their independence went when almost all had to rely on money borrowed from the Department of Health, to which strings were attached.

 References 

Category:NHS trusts