There are two boards in a foundation trust:
The chair of a foundation trust links the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors by being the chair of both. This ensures that views from governors are considered by the directors. The governors are responsible for appointing the chair and non-executive directors of the Board of Directors.
The Board of Governors are not involved in matters of day-to-day management of the trust. Setting budgets, staff pay and other operational matters are subjects for the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors carries the responsibility for ensuring the foundation trust delivers the terms of authorisation agreed by the Monitor.
The Board of Governors represent the interests of the members and partner organisations in the local health economy in the governance the trust, and for sharing information about key decisions with the membership.
The main function of the Board of Governors is to work with the Board of Directors to ensure that the trust acts in a way that is consistent with its terms of authorisation and to help set the strategic direction. The papers for the Boards of Directors' and Governors' meetings which are held in public are available on the How we make decisions pages.
Both the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors have various committees and sub-committees with delegated responsibility for specific work. The structure and reporting arrangements for these committees is shown here.