Minutes of the council of governors meeting public session, Wednesday 11 June 2025 at 5pm to 7pm.
The Council Chambers Rotherham and via Microsoft Teams.
Present
- Kath Lavery, Chair.
- Joy Bullivant, public: Doncaster.
- Miriam Clark, patient and carer.
- Joan Cox, patient and carer.
- Jennie Gaul, staff: Physical Health and Neurodiversity Care Group.
- Kym Gleeson, partner: Healthwatch.
- Prachi Goulding, staff: North Lincolnshire Adult Mental Health and Talking Therapies Care Group.
- Hannah Hall, public: Rotherham.
- Pippa Harder, patient and carer.
- Kevin Hodgkiss, patient and carer.
- Ann Llewellyn, patient and carer.
- Sam O’Brian, public: Rest of England.
- Chris Pope, public: North Lincolnshire.
- Emma Price, partner: South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (SYICB).
- Debra Taylor, partner: voluntary sector.
- Kamlesh Vatish, public: Rotherham.
- David Vickers, public: Rotherham.
- Maureen Young, public: Doncaster.
In-attendance
- Richard Chillery, Chief Operating Officer.
- Maria Clark, Non-Executive Director.
- Dr Richard Falk, Non-Executive Director.
- Steve Forsyth, Chief Nurse.
- Lea Fountain, NeXT Director.
- Sarah Fulton Tindall, Non-Executive Director.
- Philip Gowland, Director of Corporate Assurance and Board Secretary.
- Dr Judith Graham, Director of Psychological Professionals and Therapies.
- Carlene Holden, Director of People and Organisational Development.
- Toby Lewis, Chief Executive.
- Jo McDonough, Director of Strategic Development.
- Izaaz Mohamed, Director of Finance and Estates.
- Dr Diarmid Sinclair, Chief Medical Director.
- David Vallance, Non-Executive Director.
- Pauline Vickers, Non-Executive Director.
- Susan Black, Corporate Assurance Officer (minutes).
- Public: Glyn Butcher People Focus Group.
Welcome
Reference
Council of governors: 01/06/25.
Kath Lavery, Chair, opened the meeting and welcomed all attendees.
Quoracy and apologies for absence
Reference
Council of governors: 02/06/25.
Kath declared that the meeting was quorate.
Apologies were received from Governors, Cllr Linda Beresford, Dr Dean Eggitt, Dr Michael Seneviratne, Victoria Stocks, Baz Cooper, Ian Spowart, Richard Rimmington, Lee Golze, Ruth Sanderson.
Declarations of interest
Reference
Council of governors: 03/06/25.
New governors would be contacted in respect of their declarations of interest, no further declarations were made in respect of the agenda items for this meeting.
The council of governor’s received the declarations of interest.
Minutes and actions of the previous meeting held on 5 March 2025
Reference
Council of governors: 04/06/25.
The council of governors approved the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record.
The council of governors reviewed the action log, updates were noted and the propose to close actions agreed.
As a matter arising, Toby explained that at the previous meeting he had presented an underlying financial deficit and an expectation of entering the new financial year with a deficit plan. However, the board had subsequently managed to enter the year with a balanced financial plan, which was a significant shift and a major achievement.
Trust performance: committee reports from committee chairs and governor members
Reference
Council of governors: 05/06/25.
Finance Digital and Estates Committee
Pauline provided an update on the finance, digital, and estate committee, noting a surplus of £512,000 at year end. Funding of £1,800,000 had been secured from the national capital programme for high dependency rehabilitation units, which would help with complex rehabilitation work across sites. Izaaz highlighted the strong performance for the year. Key actions included filling vacancies, reducing agency spend, and delivering the capital allocation, which contributed to the financial surplus.
Post meeting note national cash programme altered to national capital programme.
Public Health, Patient Involvement and Partnerships (PHPIP) Committee
A positive year-end for the eating disorders collaborative was reported by Dave Vallance. The year had included the closure of Ellern Mede, significant shifts in patient care and improved patient experience and resulted in savings and the positive year end position.
An update on Flourish enterprises had been delivered, noting that a clear financial plan had been established to deliver balance, and the removal of cross-subsidisation between services.
The committee had focused on public health priorities, emphasising equity and inclusion for all communities served by the trust.
The health and well-being board priorities from Rotherham were discussed and highlighted strong alignment with the trust’s promises and objectives. The equity and inclusion plan had been approved at the last board meeting; and 13 of the 28 trust promises were included in the committee’s work plan and terms of reference.
An update on volunteering had been provided by Steve reporting that 246 of the 350 volunteers had been recruited and Joan Cox had met with Dave Watson the membership coordinator and promise lead to plan how governors could be more involved with volunteers.
Data remained a challenge and in July a first run of a new board report would be trialled that included Health inequalities analysis.
Quality Committee (QC)
Richard Falk highlighted that the medicines management report, which was part of the safety remit, had not been submitted at either of the committees held and presented a risk. This had been taken forward by the chief medical officer for review.
There had been a shift in the quality committee’s approach, to now focus on the importance of safety, patient experience, quality outcomes, and patient safety. There would be a focus on safety, including never events and Care Quality Commission must-dos, ensuring that critical safety standards were met. Quality outcomes would be tied to the trust’s promises, ensuring that services were not just process-driven but subject-focused.
The patient safety incident report framework (PISIRF) would categorise incidents to ensure appropriate responses and learning from events were captured.
Phil confirmed that Governor Hannah Hall would be joining the committee as a member.
Trust People Council (TPC)
Kath thanked the staff governors for their participation in the Trust People Council, emphasising the importance of staff involvement in discussions about health and well-being, staff survey results, and changes in the NHS.
There were discussions around volunteers becoming professionally registered and a separate survey for volunteers. Toby confirmed that volunteers were treated as staff and there would be a survey for the volunteers.
The council of governors accepted and noted the committee papers.
High quality therapeutic care
Reference
Council of governors: 06/06/25.
Toby presented the paper introducing a model for greater consistency in ward operations, focusing on structured timetables, daily activities, core standards, and accountability for patient care.
Currently wards were self-organising resulting in inconsistencies in service delivery. The trust would move to a consistent approach to how all wards across all sites were run yet still be individual to each of the patients care needs. Doctors visits, medication rounds, meetings, visiting times, how each patient is welcomed to the ward, would all occur at the same time or with the same structure across all locations. Acting as one hospital.
Aligned to strategic objective 4, the trust would work towards reducing the length of time patients were in the wards (when they could be released home) and provide the support to our teams in delivering that journey. Also, work continued towards ending inappropriate out-of-area placements.
Delivery would be against 3 standards:
- culture of care standards
- inpatient standards: Royal College of Psychiatrists
- quality and safety plan: delivering the safety standards
In David Vickers experience care used to be planned around international nursing models and he wondered if these had been applied in the proposed model. Toby mentioned that standards may be embodied when working towards a multi professional care plan for patients. Steve advised that nursing plans had evolved and now accounted for the patients individual requirements. David Vickers wanted to clarify he was not being prescriptive and about the need for nursing models and appreciated the confirmation that people would be working together on patient diagnosis.
Maureen highlighted that some patients may fall outside the proposed model requirements and asked if staff would be penalised should they take action outside the remit of the model, if so would this stop staff from taking action that they thought was appropriate. Toby emphasised the importance of the decisions being made on patient need and that message should be made very clear to all staff. Richard Chillery mentioned that there would be regular ward meetings to discuss patients and that the process may empower clinicians to make the correct care decision.
Consistency of care and the accreditation to the Royal College of Psychiatrists was so important and Jo asked how long the accreditation process would take and how lived experience would be incorporated within the new model. Toby advised that the response from staff had been encouraging, and the trust was collaborating with staff towards self-assessment in 2026 with accreditation to follow. Achieving a Care Quality Commission good rating was a current priority targeted for November 2025. Patient sessions were being held on the model to incorporate lived experience into the new process. The Culture of Care national model had been altered to include patient feedback and the promise to have peer support workers on our wards would bring lived experience into the teams.
Jude advised that the multi professionals had been targeted for feedback on accreditation along with service user patient partners. Cultural benchmarking had also been taken into consideration.
Prachi asked that given the ongoing challenges for recruitment was the model sustainable, particularly for specialist wards. Toby would look to include information on this at the next meeting. Overall, our wards were recruiting well, and processes were being reviewed with steps being taken to reduce the amount of auditing and increase supervision.
Hannah asked if there would be scope to change the plans following the lived experience peoples input. Toby confirmed that everything could be reshaped other than the drive for consistency. Richard C stated that we would be held to account if we were not being inclusive.
Debra highlighted that the feedback must be representation of all the individuals and communities we serve and not just the same voice.
Jude would provide the governors with culture of care examples (received and circulated with the minutes).
The council of governors received and noted the paper for information.
Care Opinion (patient feedback)
Reference
Council of governors: 07/06/25.
Steve explained how Care Opinion would be used to gather feedback from patients and carers, providing a platform for sharing experiences and improving services. Use of the app was demonstrated, and Steve highlighted the importance of timely responses to feedback from staff on the app and the impact of stories on service improvement with 13 stories already leading to change.
Discussions followed on how the feedback from the trust had changed over time on the app, the involvement of staff in providing responses, the timeliness of responses and the use of the apps graphics in care groups.
Steve highlighted that should feedback require an urgent response then Care Opinion would notify the trust. Steve confirmed that Care Opinion was shared with Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Concern was raised about patients who do not access the app and Toby confirmed that other tools were used and reported on. This app worked well, and the public were using it to review feedback on trusts services.
Prachi recognised the benefits of the care opinion app and asked when stories had raised concern how were they triangulated? Steve confirmed that team mangers would discuss these stories with members of staff at supervision meetings.
The council of governors received and noted the paper for information.
Trust update: regular reports
Reference
Council of governors: 08/06/25.
Chairs report
Kath thanked the council of governors for contributing to her 360 review and noted the desire for increased engagement with governors in the future through regular small group meetings which would be organised soon.
The council of governors received and noted the chairs report, there were no additional comments.
Action
Susan Black.
Chief executive’s report
Toby invited questions on the papers or other matters mentioning the supreme court ruling on gender.
The papers included items on the reorganisation of NHS England and integrated care boards. The 10 year plan with the focus on neighbourhood health and the achievement of the cost reduction target.
Work was ongoing to improve patient experience when transitioning from children’s to adult services and there was also focus on aging well for our older adults.
The governors were reminded that the annual members meeting was being held on the 19 of July 2025 at the Family Fun Day, Brumby Hall, DN16 1AA.
The council of governors received and noted the report.
Governor activities
Reference
Council of governors: 09/06/25.
Phil highlighted the diverse activities and contributions of governors, including recent elections, peer reviews, and engagement with members and volunteers.
Following the recent elections the new governors were welcomed by Phil, Rest of England governor Sam, patient and Carer Governors Pippa, Baz, Miriam also our new partner governors Dabra Taylor from North Lincolnshire Citizens advice and Kym Gleeson from Healthwatch Rotherham.
In May governor Ian Spowart featured as the host of the Friday vlog, and he gave an insight into his role as a governor at Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH).
The governors were encouraged to be involved with membership engagement and a meeting would be arranged with Dave Watson our promise lead, to take this forward.
Jo Cox complimented the governors on attendance and involvement with the governor activities including peer reviews. If governors would like to become involved with peer reviews then Jo invited them to shadow her on visits.
Jo McDonough reminded governors or the up and coming events including armed forces day in all locations and Pride. Dates and locations had been circulated. Meetings would be organised with Kath and Toby mentioned that at the annual members meeting (AMM) there would be a children’s and young people’s annual members meeting held just before lunch, the governors were invited to come along. Richard highlighted the importance of attending and supporting the brighter future meeting held by the children and young people.
The council of governors received and noted the report.
Any other business
Reference
Council of governors: 10/06/25.
Maureen asked about the fall in immunisation rates and the announcement that arrangements were being made for health visitors to undertake these. Maureen wondered how this would be possible. From experience she was aware of what is involved and the extra workload this would create for already busy health visitors. Richard Falk reassured Maureen that pilots were being undertaken and believed that a different model would be used with different health care professionals.
Toby acknowledged the size of the issue and one that should be supported by the trust. The results of the pilots would be awaited before any decision would be made on how to take this forward. Richard Chillery mentioned the success of childhood vaccination teams working in schools, however with now three times more children not attending school they were not being captured by the programme. Child health issues would benefit from being on the Council of Governors meeting future agenda.
Public questions
Reference
Council of governors: 11/06/25.
No public questions had been received
Date, time, and venue of next meeting
Reference
Council of governors: 12/06/25.
Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 5pm, Doncaster.
Page last reviewed: February 06, 2026
Next review due: February 06, 2027
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