Annual Members Meeting paperwork – 29 July 2025

Annual Members’ Meeting

Tuesday 29 July 2025, 11am – 12pm

Held at The Studio Leeds, Riverside West, Whitehall Road, Leeds, LS1 4AW

Questions should be submitted in advance of this meeting.  You can do this by emailing the Membership Team at Ftmembership.lypft@nhs.net or by calling 07977 327628.

Agenda

Opening proceedings

Governance

Minutes of the Annual Members’ Meeting held on Tuesday 30 July 2024 held at 11.00am until 12:10pm at The Bridge Conference Centre, Rider Street, Leeds, LS9 7BQ

Attendance

Board members

Governors

Also in attendance

• Mrs Clare Edwards – Associate Director of Corporate Governance / Trust Board Secretary
• 51 members of the Trust and members of the general public

24/001 – Welcome (agenda item 1)

Mrs McRae opened the meeting at 11.00am and welcomed members of: the Board of Directors; the Council of Governors; the Trust; and the wider public.

24/002 – Apologies for absence (agenda item 2)

Apologies were received from: Ms Zoe Burns-Shore, Non-executive Director; and from Ms Katy Wilburn, Non-executive Director; who are members of the Board of Directors.

Apologies were also received from the following governors: Mr Oliver Beckett, Public: Leeds; Ms Nicola Binns, Staff: Clinical; Ms Tessa Denham, Appointed: Volition Leeds (learning disabilities representative); Ms Gabriella Obeng Nyarko, Appointed: Volition Leeds (mental health representative); and Ms Madhulika Singh, Public: Leeds.

The meeting was quorate.

24/003 – Declaration of any conflicts of interest in respect of the agenda items (agenda item 3)

No one present at the meeting declared any conflict of interest in respect of any agenda items to be discussed.

24/004 – Minutes of the Annual Members’ Meeting held 25 July 2023 (agenda item 4)

Mrs McRae presented the minutes of the Annual Members’ Meeting held on 25 July 2023. They were accepted as a true record.

24/005 – Matters arising (agenda item 5)

It was noted that there were no matters arising from the previous meeting.

24/006 – Presentation from Les France, Lead Governor (agenda item 6)

Mrs McRae welcomed Mr France, Lead Governor, to present the report from the Council of Governors.

Mr France presented the Membership Report. He outlined to attendees that there were 14,314 members of the Trust at the end of March 2024, explaining that this consisted of: 9,501 public members; 922 service user and carer members; and 3,891 staff members. He noted that this was an increase from the 13,926 members which the Trust had at the end of March 2023.

Mr France outlined the role of a governor to the attendees. He explained that a governor should represent the views of service users, carers, and members of the wider public to the Trust and that this was why it was important that the Council of Governors was representative of the community. He reported to the attendees that one of the main ways this was done was through the public Council of Governors meetings, which were held four times per year to discuss the work and performance of the Trust. He added that the Council of Governors functioned as a critical friend for the Trust and sought assurance from the Board that it was acting in the best interests of the communities it served. Mr France went on to add that the Council of Governors was responsible for the appointment of the Trust’s Non-executive Directors (NEDs) who held the executive director members of the Board of Directors to account, the appointment of the Trust’s external auditors, and also received multiple reports throughout the year including the Annual Accounts, Annual Report, and the Quality Report.

Mr France next summarised some of the work conducted by the Council of Governors in 2023/24. He informed the attendees that this included the appointment of a new NED in Ms Zoe Burns-Shore, who joined the Trust on the 15 November 2023. He went on to inform members that the Council of Governors and the Board of Directors had met in September 2023 to discuss three areas of strategic focus around the recruitment and retention of staff, which included Trust Workforce, Staff Rewards, and Staff Survey Results.

Mr France proceeded to present an update on the outcome of the two governor elections that had taken place since the last Annual Members’ Meeting. He informed attendees that as a result of the Summer 2023 election which concluded on 6 October 2023, and the Spring 2024 election which concluded on 29 May 2024, 16 governors had been successfully elected leaving only three unfilled seats for elected governors at the end of May 2024. He added that the next round of governor elections would commence in Spring 2025 and encouraged interested members to stand for election.

Mr France noted that the NHS had faced multiple challenges in 2023/24 and that he was proud of the work of the Council of Governors to help ensure that the Trust was able to respond to these challenges whilst listening to the views of its members. He added that the Trust would continue to face challenges in 2024/25 and that he was assured that the Trust was in a good position to respond to these challenges. Mr France thanked everyone who had worked for and supported the Trust, including the governors for volunteering their time over the course of the year. Mrs McRae thanked Mr France for the work he had done for the Trust as part of his role as Lead Governor.

24/007 – Presentation from Dawn Hanwell, Chief Financial Officer, and Deputy Chief Executive (agenda item 7)

Mrs McRae welcomed Mrs Hanwell, Chief Financial Officer, and Deputy Chief Executive, to present the report on the Trust’s finances.

Mrs Hanwell informed the attendees that the Trust was in a solid financial position following what had been a challenging 2023/24 financial year for the NHS as a whole for a number of reasons, including managing the backlogs and surge of demand for services following the COVID-19 pandemic. She reminded attendees that the Trust’s finances were now even more linked to the overall financial position of the Integrated Care System (ICS) and that the Trust was working in partnership with other Trust’s in the region to deliver shared financial targets. She reported that the Trust had met all of its statutory requirements in the 2023/24 financial year and had received an unqualified opinion on its annual accounts from the external auditors, which demonstrated good financial management and use of resources.

Mrs Hanwell presented the key elements of the financial report. She outlined to attendees that the Trust had a presentational income and expenditure deficit of £0.5 million (m) for the year. She explained that this was a reduction compared with the £1.55m surplus achieved in the 2022/23 financial year. Mrs Hanwell reported that this was a technical deficit which had been caused by some late

adjustments in the provisions the Trust maintained and changes to the valuation of the Trust’s buildings and assets, but that broadly speaking that this was close to the intended break-even target. She also reported that the Trust’s cash position had remained strong at £116.7m, a slight decrease from the £122.4m reported at the end of the 2022/23 financial year. Mrs Hanwell stressed that maintaining a strong cash position was important in context of upcoming private finance initiative (PFI) challenges, with PFI contracts ending in 2028.

Mrs Hanwell next provided an overview of the Trust’s income to attendees. She reported that the majority of the Trust’s funds were generated through block contracts, with continued investment in accordance with the Mental Health Investment Standard. The attendees heard that patient income had increased by 5% to £226.8m in 2023/24, from £216.2m in 2022/23. She explained that 67% of this revenue was received from the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, and 17% was received from NHS England. She also reported that due to the Trust’s strong cash position and increases in the base interest rates throughout the financial year that the Trust generated an additional £6.4m in interest in 2023/24 which it was able to spend to support its financial position, an 126% increase from the £2.8m generated in 2022/23.

Mrs Hanwell next addressed the Trust’s expenditure over the 2023/24 financial year which came to a total of £258.3m. This included £182.1m spent on staff salaries which accounted for 70% of all expenditure in the year. Mrs Hanwell reported that this consisted of 3,360 whole time equivalent staff, an increase of 177 from 2022/23, which was reflective of the Trust’s aim to fill staff vacancies, in addition to £13.8m on bank staff expenditure. Mrs Hanwell next reported that agency spending remained high at £11.2m, as did spending on out of area placements at £15.1m, and that both of these areas had been targeted as areas to make efficiency savings in the 2024/25 financial plan. She also reported that inflationary pressures which resulted in the cost of resources used by the Trust increasing in excess of national funding had contributed to additional expenditure and increased financial pressure. The attendees also heard that the Trust was committed to the Better Payment Practice Code, and that as part of this it had paid 92.5% of all invoices it had received within 30 days.

Mrs Hanwell next reported to the attendees that the Trust maintained a good capital programme with £6.1m invested in 2023/24. These investments included continued efforts to improve inpatient environments at multiple sites across the Trust and that this was separate from the additional investments which had been made by PFI partners in buildings leased by the Trust. Other key investments included refurbishing the Corporate Hub at St Mary’s House, investment into the Electronic Document Management System which had replaced paper patient records, Cyber Security arrangements, and general estate maintenance.

Mrs Hanwell next reported on the future financial plans of the Trust. She stated to attendees that the Trust would continue to work as a system with joint planning with partners within the ICS Framework. She informed attendees the Trust had committed to an ambitious efficiency target in light of the continued challenges with the national public finances. She added that the Trust would continue to develop Provider Collaborative arrangements where value could be added, noting that the Trust was on course to become the lead provider of Perinatal Mental Health Services across West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the Humber and North Yorkshire. She also noted that the Trust would continue assessing its options as its existing PFI arrangements were scheduled to conclude within the next four years.

Mrs Hanwell thanked everyone for attending her presentation and welcomed questions which would be answered at the end of the meeting. Mrs McRae thanked Mrs Hanwell for her presentation.

24/008 – Presentation by Dr Sara Munro, Chief Executive (agenda item 8)

Mrs McRae welcomed Dr Munro, Chief Executive, to present the Chief Executive’s Report which highlighted the main work, service developments and achievements of the Trust in the 2023/24 financial year.

Dr Munro thanked everyone for attending the event and reflected on the Trust’s achievements in the year since the last Annual Members’ Meeting, adding that more detail on these could be found in the Trust’s Annual Review. Firstly, she highlighted the work which had been conducted in refreshing various Trust plans and strategies, including the Care Services Strategic Five-Year Plan which looked at reducing the inequality of care experienced by service users from different backgrounds and introducing more lived experience co-production with service users, as well as the Care Services Plans, Quality Strategic Plan for 2023-28, the Digital Plan for 2022-25 and the People Plan 2024-27. She added that work had commenced on developing plans which would be launched in 2024 including the refreshed Strategic Estates Plan and the Trust’s Green Plan. The attendees heard that these plans were important as these would instruct the actions of the Trust across these various domains in the years ahead, but that they would also continue to be iterated on so that the Trust could continue to adapt to changes.

Dr Munro went on to highlight to attendees a number of service developments which had occurred during the year. In particular, she highlighted the opening of a day service at Mill Lodge for children with eating disorders which aimed to minimise the disruption experienced by service users, the rollout of the Northern Gambling Service to Sheffield and the North West which ensured that this provision was available to individuals across the country, and the launch of the Complex Emotional Needs pathway from the Community Rehabilitation Enhanced Support Team which aimed to provide new treatment options within the Leeds community and thereby reduce the number of service users who had to be placed out of area to receive treatment. She additionally noted that Community Mental Health Transformation work had continued, and that some sites had opened across Leeds to create a new pathway which would allow service users to access the mental health support they required, in collaboration with primary care and voluntary community care colleagues.

Dr Munro next outlined some areas the Trust celebrated in the year. The attendees heard that Emerge Leeds had collaborated with the local Donkey Sanctuary to provide holistic care to a service user who underwent significant improvement as a result of this work. She also highlighted the launch of the album “Sometimes Falling Up” from service users on the Complex (Locked) Rehabilitation Ward at the Newsam Centre, and celebration events related to the 75^th anniversary of Windrush and the launch of the NHS.

Dr Munro next reported on key accreditations achieved by the Trust. She drew particular attention to the Trust being accredited with the Triangle of Care for the Trust’s commitment to carers, the White Ribbon for recognising the importance of women’s safety, the NHS Pastoral Care Quality Award for its work with international recruits, and the Armed Forces Covenant Veterans Gold Award in recognition of the Trust’s commitment to support armed service veterans who worked for the Trust. She also highlighted some national awards which had been achieved by individual services and staff within the Trust, including Ms Julie McGrath, Health Support Worker, who received the Chief Nursing Officer Award.

Attendees were next briefed on the work the Trust had conducted to support its staff in the year. Dr Munro informed attendees that a lot of this work was staff-led and included initiatives such as a coffee van visiting Trust sites to provide staff with a free hot drink, the NHS 75 carnival, and team celebrations. Linked to this were a number of staff health and wellbeing initiatives, including wellbeing roadshows to enable support to reach staff where they worked, and supporting the Trust’s various staff networks, such as the Workforce Race Equality Network, Workforce Disability and Wellbeing Network, and the Rainbow Alliance to make the Trust a more inclusive place to work. Dr Munro added that work continued to address harassment, abuse, and discrimination experienced by staff and that this work would continue with the Trust’s refreshed People Plan which had been launched in May 2024.

Dr Munro next presented a summary of the results from the 2023/24 Staff Survey, which was an anonymous survey issued to all staff which allowed honest feedback to be received on a number of categories. She reported that the response rate was high with 50% of all staff responding to the survey and that the results were the best received since 2018, with an improvement demonstrated in eight of the nine People Promise themes, three of which was statistically significant. She added that this improvement had come despite the uniquely challenging circumstances which had been experienced by the NHS as a whole over the past five years.

Dr Munro next provided a report on the work conducted by the Patient Advice and Liaison Service. She reported that the service had received 1802 enquiries and concerns in the year, with 393 compliments and 285 concerns recorded over the year. Dr Munro informed the attendees that a new complaints tracker system had been implemented to ensure that there was organisational oversight of open complaints. This would allow any updates regarding the Trust’s actions to address concerns raised to be passed on to the individuals who had raised the complaint.

Dr Munro next briefed the attendees on the work of the Service User Network (SUN) to involve service users and carers in the work undertaken by the Trust. This included work by the Patient and Carer Experience Team in collaboration with lived experience partners to support the Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement and Involvement advisory group, and work conducted by Synergi-Leeds to reduce the inequalities experienced by ethnic minorities in their mental health outcomes. On the theme of co-production, Dr Munro also noted at each of the public Board of Directors meetings there had been a ‘Sharing Stories’ presentation which gave the opportunity for individuals with lived experiences to explain how they had been involved in shaping the service that the Trust provided. This included presentations from the Co-Chairs of the SUN, the Cultural Inclusion Ambassador programme, Partners Peer Support, among others.

Attendees were next briefed on the work the Trust was doing in collaboration with partners in health and social care, local authorities, charities, and other third sector organisations. She explained that the Trust primarily worked within the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System where the Trust provided a number of services, as well as contributing to the leadership and governance at a number of organisations at the West Yorkshire level. She also explained that the Trust offered a number of services within the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, including Deaf Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and eating disorder services.

Finally, Dr Munro highlighted the key plans for the Trust for the year ahead, noting that these plans came in the context of significant financial constraints at a system level. She reported that there were two expansion projects planned for both the Complex (Locked) Rehabilitation Service and the Perinatal Mental Health Service which would improve inpatient capacity for the region. Equally, she explained that the Inpatient Flow Programme would aim to improve the discharge of patients back into the community to improve inpatient capacity and reduce the need for service users to be treated out of area. Dr Munro then informed attendees of the development of a Health Equality Plan which would aim to improve services the Trust provided so that they were better able to understand and address the health needs of the communities they served, whilst also reducing the inequalities experienced by service users. Mrs McRae thanked Dr Munro for her presentation.

24/009 – Opportunity to Receive Questions from Members and the Public (agenda item 9)

Mrs McRae invited attendees to ask questions which the panel and members of the Board of Directors in attendance would answer.

A service user enquired whether the Trust would consider reimbursing the expenses incurred by service users when they were volunteering with the Trust as part of their lived-experience consultancy. Dr Munro confirmed that the Trust already had a policy in place which covered a wide range of expenses for service users in this way, and that the Trust would check that all of its user-network partners had received this guidance to ensure that expenses could be claimed.

Mrs McRae next informed the attendees that a number of questions had been submitted in advance of the meeting. The first of these was a question which had been submitted by a service user who asked whether the Trust could develop lived experience apprenticeships that lead to pathways for a career in a leadership position. Mr Skinner confirmed that the Trust currently offered a wide range of apprenticeships, including three leadership apprenticeships ranging from supervisory roles to Level 7 accredited apprenticeships with the Chartered Management Institute. He added that there were no current plans to create a specific lived experience apprenticeship as this would need to be developed with a higher education institution or university to be fully accredited and there was not likely to be sufficient demand in order for this to be achieved. He reported that the apprenticeships the Trust did currently offer could also be offered to people with lived experience with reasonable adjustments made if required.

Next, Mrs McRae informed attendees of a question from a service user which asked whether reciprocal mentoring could be piloted between service users / carers, and members of the Board of Directors. Mrs Forster Adams informed the attendees that co-production of services with individuals with lived experience was a recurrent theme at the Annual Members’ Meeting held in 2023 and that the Trust was committed to developing this approach. She added that she was enthusiastic with the prospect of creating reciprocal mentorship partnerships with individuals with lived experience and members of staff at all levels within the Trust, including at a very senior level, and that this idea would be explored further with colleagues from the Patient Experience Team and in Staff Networks. Ms Sanderson added that she had benefitted from a reciprocal mentorship programme and so also advocated this proposal.

Mrs McRae read out a question which had been submitted in advance by a service user which questioned whether more resources could be allocated to the Patient and Carer Experience and Involvement Team to enable more opportunities for service user and carer involvement. Ms Sanderson affirmed that she would like to increase the resources allocated to this team as it was a goal for lived experience advocates to shape services at all levels of the Trust, including frontline services and corporate services. Mrs McRae equally recognised the importance of people with lived experience shaping services, but reminded attendees that the financial resources of the Trust would be limited in the upcoming year.

Mrs McRae then read out the final question which had been submitted in advance of the meeting from a service user who wished to raise concerns regarding the frequent smell of marijuana in the Becklin Centre. Mrs Forster Adams reassured attendees that the Trust took this issue seriously and that it was working with inpatient services to support and inform service users of the risk of using illicit substances and to help them stop. She reported that the Trust was collaborating with community partners and police services to engage with the issue and to tackle the supply of illegal substances but that this was an area of significant challenge. A service user added whether the Trust would consider using sniffer dogs to ensure that service users were not taking illicit substances into inpatient areas. Mrs Forster Adams stated that there were no plans for this as it was not considered an appropriate response for vulnerable service users in the care of the Trust. She instead reiterated the need for the Trust to work collaboratively with its service users, carers, and partners to address concerns regarding illicit substance abuse on Trust estates.

Mrs McRae then started taking questions from attendees at the meeting. A Service User Governor questioned what the justification was for the change in the Single Point of Access NHS 111 number for individuals requiring access to mental health resources. Dr Munro informed that the change had been made at a national level by NHS England, with the rationale that it would be desirable for there to be a single number across the country that individuals could call in a mental health crisis to be directed towards local crisis services. Attendees heard that the Trust had been consulted on the implementation of the service, and that its rollout had been delayed for as long as possible in response to concerns which had been raised regarding the service. Dr Munro acknowledged that this new provision constituted a big change. She added that this service came with multiple challenges which were being closely monitored to ensure the service was robust enough to meet demand, link with local services as intended, and direct callers to appropriate services in a timely manner, and that feedback on this was being gathered at this time. She added that she would be happy to receive any additional feedback from attendees who had used this service outside of the meeting so that this could be reported to the appropriate team.

A Carer Governor highlighted the significant expenditure the Trust had made on Out of Area Placements in the 2023/24 financial year, and enquired whether the Trust had a target amount it wanted to reduce this expenditure by in the upcoming year. Mrs McRae affirmed that the Trust was undertaking significant work to address this issue. She clarified that as well as being burdensome financially, that the Trust also sought to reduce the number of out of area placements as this could result in a reduction in quality of patient care as the service user would be further away from their support networks, such as family and friends. Mrs Forster Adams clarified that ideally that all service users would be treated as close to home as possible and that no one would be sent out of area for treatment, but that it was recognised to be appropriate in a small number of circumstances due to the lack of specialism in a particular field locally. She concurred with the view that reducing out of area placements was an issue of quality of care as well as a financial priority and added that in the last 14 weeks that the Trust had achieved a reduction of approximately 65% in the use of out of area placements.

Next, a service user attendee asked how the Trust planned to increase intersectional employment at the Trust to ensure that it was diverse as possible and thereby more accessible to members of the public. Mrs McRae verified the importance of this issue and confirmed that the Trust monitored staff diversity metrics. Mr Skinner stated that the Trust supported multiple Staff Networks which were working on improvements in this area, such as the Rainbow Alliance. He informed attendees that getting staff to disclose information regarding protected characteristics, such as having a disability, had been a challenge but that work on addressing this had been conducted and that reporting in this area was improving. He added that the Trust had recently launched the refreshed People Plan in May 2024 which aimed to address issues in this area, and that he was happy to share and receive feedback on this plan.

An attendee enquired if the Trust was aware of whether university programmes which were training prospective nurses and doctors were utilising individuals with lived experience to help co-produce their training. Mrs McRae confirmed that she had been invited to visit the University of Bradford to look at their patient experience programme which had been developed in this manner with people from a wide range of lived experience. She added that she believed that other organisations would offer similar programmes and noted that the Trust would be vigilant of these opportunities and encourage service user involvement where appropriate.

Finally, an Appointed Governor noted that Leeds City Council had formally recognised “care experienced” as a protected characteristic for people who had been under the care of the local authority at some stage in their life. They reported that this was in recognition of the fact that such individuals faced significant barriers which impacted them throughout their lives and had been adopted by a number of other councils across the country. They questioned whether the Trust would similarly recognise this as a protected characteristic. Mrs McRae reported that the Trust would be happy to consider this further at a future Council of Governors meeting. Dr Munro concurred and added that there would be an opportunity to explore this further with the Leeds Carer Academy to explore employment opportunities with individuals who had been in local authority care.

At the conclusion of formal business, Mrs McRae closed the Annual Members’ Meeting of the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust at 12:10pm and thanked everyone for attending.

Cumulative action report for the Annual Members Meeting

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