Issue - meetings

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

The member of the press present at the meeting did not wish to ask any question at this point in the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public and press present at the meeting.

The Chairman reported receipt of a written question from the Youth Cabinet as follows:-

“Many young people do not know who their School Nurse is, the full range of help and support they provide or how to contact them.  We have found that increasingly young people are experiencing mental health issues which may result in self-harm or other related health issues and do not know where to go to for help and support.

Can School Nurses have more of a presence in schools and be accessible to all young people with clear information publicised about the services they provide?”

The Chairman requested that he be supplied with the answer in writing which he would forward to the Youth Cabinet.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

There no members of the public or press present at the meeting.

A member of the public spoke about the work of the ‘Speak up for Autism’ Group which, in association with the Sheffield Hallam University, was undertaking a study of the stress levels experienced by people who suffer Autism.

The following questions were asked by members of the public present at the meeting:-

“The Daily Telegraph had run a story last month about a number of NHS Trusts that had been paying £570,000 a year to agencies.  I was disappointed that 1 of them was Rotherham Hospital.  Since February, the Rotherham Foundation Trust had paid at least £40,000 a month for Michael Morgan at an annual rate of up to £570,000 for the services of his company.  It said that the sum would pay the salary of 26 nurses and is more than twice the top salary paid to any permanent NHS  executive.  What have the tax payers of Rotherham got for their money? How is it justified paying more than other Trusts?”

Michael Morgan, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Rotherham Foundation Trust, stated that the Trust’s website contained all the contractual information concerning both partners.  He was not paid directly by the Trust; he was paid by Bolt Partners so the information from the standpoint of him personally was not correct.  His job was to work himself out of a job as quickly as possible and would be leaving on 18^th November when the new Interim Chief Executive would be taking up the post.  Michael had been fulfilling the role of Interim Chief Executive as well as Chief Restructuring Officer.  There had also been 4 other individuals as part of that contract that had been in the organisation since February, 2013.

Michael would provide full details or the website had the actual contract between the Trust and Bolt Partners.

The information contained in the newspaper article was not the salary for the Interim Chief Executive but was the amount of money paid to the whole turnaround team that had been brought to Rotherham Hospital.  When Bolt Partners had joined the Trust in February, 2013, the Trust had been losing money in recent years. 

The Trust had lost £6M in 2012/13, £6M in 2011/12 and £3.5M in 2010/11.  It was now £0.5M ahead of the Plan and was projected to break even at the end of March, 2014. 

“It had been reported in the local press that the Hospital was considering options as part of the action plan to Monitor.  1 option was the merger or acquisition of other Health Trusts.  How developed are the plans and what discussions has the Trust had with other Trusts?”

Monitor had asked the Trust to look at all options for Rotherham Foundation Trust.  There were 3 basic options that the Trust was looking at and that was part of the work the turnaround team had been tasked with by the Trust and Monitor:-

Option 1         to continue the Trust as it was in its current structure under the current type of management

Option 2         Increased vertically integrated type of organisation

                        Currently there are acute and community services that were partially vertically integrated. A fully vertically integrated organisation would see patients taken care of in the community and the acute care trust,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35

There were no members of the public or press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public or press present at the meeting.

There were questions from the member of the press present at the meeting.

There were no members of the public or press at the meeting.

There were no members of the public or press at the meeting.