The foundation trust model: death by a thousand cuts

The foundation trust model: death by a thousand cuts For more than a decade, staff across the NHS toiled in the pursuit of foundation trust status. Monitor’s tests were unforgiving, but the prize was worth fighting for: freedom from the grasp of government and a brand that stood for quality and professionalism.

Those days seem long behind us. The foundation trust pipeline dried up as NHS funding was hit by the economic downturn. This, along with a series of changes to government policy, has eroded the freedoms that foundation trusts fought so hard for.

It is now increasingly difficult to describe a clear distinction between foundation trusts and NHS trusts, with foundation trusts subject to greater central control than at any time in their history. The new NHS planning guidance published in December 2015 and recent letters from national bodies to trust chief executives hammer the final nails into the coffin. The King's Fund