Become a governor at our Trust – nominations close 6 February 2026
Help improve NHS services across Leeds and beyond.
Elections are taking place for new Governors for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT). This covers mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services in Leeds and across the north of England. However, this will soon cover physical health NHS community services as the Trust merges with Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust in the coming year.
Governors do an important job for the Trust representing the interests of service users, carers, staff and the public. They meet at least three times a year with the Board of Directors to scrutinise the performance of the Trust, ask questions, raise concerns and hopefully shine a light on good performance.
Governors can attend Trust Board meetings and the sub-committee meetings that feed into it. They are also involved in the recruitment of non-executive directors and oversee their performance. They can take part in service visits to any part of the Trust and provide feedback to the Council of Governors on what they have learned. There are also events within the Trust, in Leeds and across the wider West Yorkshire health care system for governors to join and meet governors from other Trusts.
The following seats are available on our Council of Governors:
- Public in Leeds – 1 vacancy
- Carers in Leeds – 3 vacancies
- Carers in York and North Yorkshire: 1 vacancy
- Service Users in York and North Yorkshire – 1 vacancy
- Service Users or Carers: Anywhere in the UK – 1 vacancy
- Clinical staff – 3 vacancies
- Non-clinical staff – 2 vacancies
To be eligible to be a governor
- You must be a ‘member’ of the Trust – you can sign up online for free here.
- You must live in the designated constituency area for the seat you apply for. That could be Leeds, York and North Yorkshire, or the rest of the UK.
- To be a service user governor you must have used the Trust’s services in the last 10 years.
- To be a carer governor you must have cared for someone who has used the Trust’s services in the last 10 years.
Find out more and nominate
If you’d like to put yourself forward for election, you can apply online here. The deadline for nominations is 5pm on Friday 6 February 2026.
For further details on the role of a governor and the election process, please read our Guide for Prospective Governors.
Alternatively, you can request a hardcopy of the nominations form by emailing: ftnominationenquiries@cesvotes.com or calling 0208 889 9203.
If you have any other queries, please contact Kerry McMann in the Trust’s Corporate Governance Team via kerry.mcmann@nhs.net.
Page last updated: 23rd Jan 2026 2:04pm