Council of governors

Overview

As an NHS foundation trust, QVH has a Board of Directors and a Council of Governors. The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategy and performance of the Trust and the Council of Governors holds the non-executive directors to account for the performance of the Board. The Trust Chair leads both the Board of Directors and the Council of Governors.

Statutory duties

The Council of Governors has important statutory powers which include:

• to hold the non-executive directors to account for the performance of the Board
• to represent the interest of the foundation trust members and members of public
• to appoint and, if appropriate, remove the chair, non-executive directors and auditor
• to decide the remuneration, allowances and other terms and conditions of the chair and non-executive directors
• to approve the appointment of the chief executive
• to receive the annual accounts, any report of the auditor on them and the annual report.

Our governors

The QVH Council of Governors currently comprises:

• 10 public governors – individuals elected from the trust’s public constituency. More information on how to become a member can be here: about membership
• Three staff governors – individuals elected from the trust’s staff membership
• Three stakeholder governors – individuals nominated by the trust’s key partner organisations.

The biographies for each of our governors can be found on the right hand side of this page. You can contact our governors via email at: qvh.governors@nhs.net 

Our Council of Governors register provides information about our current governors and their terms of office. Please follow this link to access the register.

Meetings

The QVH Council of Governors holds quarterly meetings in public which QVH members and members of the general public are welcome and encouraged to attend. The papers are made available one week before each meeting. More information about recent and forthcoming meetings and the meeting papers can be found on the public meetings page.

Sub-committees

There are two formal sub-committees of the QVH Council of Governors:

• Appointments Committee
  The Appointments Committee meets quarterly and is responsible for the identification and nomination of non-executive directors including the Chair. It advises the Council of Governors who are responsible for the appointment, re-appointment and removal of the Chair and other non-executive directors, and also the remuneration, allowances and other terms and conditions of the chair and non-executive directors.
• Governor Steering Committee (GSC)
  The GSG was created by the QVH Council of Governors to support and facilitate the work of the Council of Governors generally, and specifically to hold the Trust’s Non-Executive Directors to account for the performance of the board and representing the interests of members and the public. It meets at least four times per year, in advance of each ordinary meeting of the Council of Governors.

More information

You can find out more about the role of the Council of Governors in appendix B of the Code of governance for NHS provider trusts.

If you have any questions please get in touch with the Corporate governance team: qvh.corporategovernance@nhs.net

Page last updated: 14 July 2025