Our public and staff governors are elected by the membership and they are responsible for representing the interests of foundation trust members, service users, carers, and staff.

Please note: the 2025 elections were postponed due to ongoing uncertainty about the Government's plans for Councils of Governors as outlined in its recently published NHS 10 Year Plan. A decision has now been taken to proceed with the elections and the nominations will open at the end of January 2026 - all members will receive the invite from Civica Election Services. 

In the NHS 10 Year Plan, the Government has suggested that NHS Foundation Trusts may in future no longer be required to have Councils of Governors. This could mean that new legislation is introduced within the next year, which may bring all Governor terms to an end in 2027 or 2028. We wanted to make you aware of this when considering whether to stand for election. 

Our governors are very important to our Trust and they play a fundamental role in improving services, advising the Trust about the needs of service users and the community, holding our non-executive directors to account, and informing our strategies and future plans.

Elections are usually held each year and at the start of the election process, a formal notice is published, inviting eligible members to stand for election to the governor seat(s) that are open.  The formal notice includes the contact details of the external company that facilitates our election process (to request a nomination form).  In the case of contested elections, ballot papers are then sent to members who in turn vote for the candidate(s) that they wish to be elected to our Council of Governors.

Council of Governors elections 2024

• Download the formal notice of the election.
• You can also download the notice of the poll. 

All Trust members have received notification and guidance on how to nominate themselves to stand for election as a governor. The Trust is keen to represent all areas of the community on the Council of Governors and welcomes interest from anyone within the various constituencies. We are delighted to see significant interest in the role of Governor which means every constituency in 2024 saw a contested ballot:

Election Report 2024 from the independent returning officer. Below you will find a list of elected candidates. A full report has been submitted to the Council of Governors at their meeting on 14 November and is linked here.

We will provide a comprehensive induction programme and ongoing support for our Council of Governors.

Please contact the Governors & Members Office for details of previous elections.