Recommendation F78: Enhancement of role of governors
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
The Care Quality Commission and Monitor should consider how best to enable governors to have access to a similar advisory facility in relation to compliance with healthcare standards as will be available for compliance issues in relation to breach of a licence (pursuant to section 39A of the National Health Service Act 2006 as amended), or other ready access to external assistance.
In brief (written by this site)
In commentary published in February 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England reported that the recommendation was partially implemented, explaining that the Care Quality Commission produced guidance for foundation trust governors in 2019 and that GovernWell continues to provide a governor support programme (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). Prior to this, in May 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team noted that the recommendation had been accepted by the government, recording earlier steps by Monitor to establish an advisory panel for governors in 2013 (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Accepted.
Monitor has set up the Panel for Advising Governors, which has a former Foundation Trust chair as its Chair, together with 16 other experienced members. The panel has been operational since May 2013 and is ready to take questions from governors on topics as per the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Governors may therefore put a question to the existing panel on a breach or potential breach of the trust’s constitution, breach of licence or any other matter under chapter 5 of the National Health Service Act 2006.
The Care Quality Commission has recently written to all Councils of Governors to confirm the appointment of Professor Sir Mike Richards as the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, and to highlight and inform governors of the ways in which they can share information and raise issues with the Care Quality Commission, and contribute to the new NHS inspections.
The Care Quality Commission will be piloting ways for governors to contribute directly to the new hospital inspections, as a further route to raising issues.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say partially delivered (27 February 2026)
In 2019 CQC produced guidance for FT Governors about the CQC which provides information for governors to help carry out their duties.
Please see our response to Recommendation 47 for NHS England guidance and available support in relation to Foundation Trust governors.
GovernWell continues to provide a wide-ranging governor support programme. This includes providing a national training programme for governors, virtual workshops, newsletters and additional support and guidance.
In 2014-15 NHS Monitor and CQC Introduced the Well-led framework, a national set of comprehensive governance - including quality governance - guidelines which provider boards should follow, and which underpinned CQC Well-led reviews and Monitor/NHS Improvement approaches to governance. Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires that that Foundation Trusts assess their governance on a regular basis. It has been revised on several occasions since.
The CQC provide a range of resources and guidance for NHS Trusts and Foundation trusts as part of assessing the well-led question.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Partially implemented – Closed”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 78, PDF page 463.
Department of Health and Social Care states no delivery position (11 February 2015)
No further update is required. Please see response to the recommendation in Hard Truths
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
Site note: The Inquiry addressed this recommendation to the Care Quality Commission, not to the Department of Health. The annex gives this update in the Department's publication and does not say who wrote it, so the row is the Department's report of the progress made on it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said that Monitor had set up a Panel for Advising Governors, operational from May 2013, to answer questions relating to (potential) breaches of a trust’s constitution, breach of licence or any other matter under chapter 5 of the National Health Service Act 2006.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 16.2 No. 78, PDF page 428.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding