De-authorisation of NHS foundation trusts
207.New sections 65D and 65E make specific provision for NHS foundation trusts. New section 65D enables Monitor to give a notice to the Secretary of State which has the effect that the Secretary of State must make an order under new section 65E providing for the trust to cease to be a foundation trust and instead become an NHS trust (described as “de-authorisation”) and an order under new section 65B appointing a TSA for the trust. Monitor would be able to give such a notice only where it was satisfied that the trust had failed to comply with a notice under section 52 and that a further notice would be unlikely to secure the provision of services which the trust is required by its authorisation to provide (new section 65D(1)). This is similar to the existing statutory test for the dissolution of an NHS foundation trust under section 54 of the NHS Act. A notice under section 52 of the NHS Act requires a specified trust, the directors or board governors of the trust to do, or not to do, specified things within a specified period.
208.The provisions of new Schedule 8A to the NHS Act (inserted by Schedule 2 to the Act) apply in relation to trusts de-authorised by an order under new section 65E(1) as well as to trusts de-authorised under new section 52D(1) – see paragraphs 202 and 203 above for an explanation of the provisions of Schedule 8A, and see the commentary on section 15 above in relation to section 52D. The only difference is that paragraph 5 of Schedule 8A, which does not apply to trusts de-authorised under section 52D, applies to trusts de-authorised under the trust special administrator provisions (section 65E). Paragraph 5 provides that the trust retains its name except for the substitution of the words “NHS trust” for “NHS foundation trust”, and that its functions are the provision of goods or services for the purposes of the NHS in England.
