Trust builds on governance arrangements to strengthen oversight and drive improvement
Date added: 05 November 2026
Last updated: 05 November 2026
Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust is continuing to develop its approach to governance, organisational oversight and accountability to deliver better outcomes for its patients, their carers, and colleagues. The trust is building on established arrangements and best practice to support effective and timely decision-making, and drive its continuous improvement ambitions.
Over the past year, the trust has further enhanced how information about organisational performance, risks and improvement activity is brought together, reviewed and used to inform decisions.
Clearer delivery plans, milestones and accountability arrangements are supporting a more consistent approach to monitoring progress, identifying emerging challenges and ensuring the right focus and support are in place to deliver improvement.
Tony Saroy, Trust Secretary at Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, said: “Good governance is about supporting the trust to make the right decisions at the right time, based on the right information. This means continually developing how we use information, insight and learning to support effective decision-making.
“By bringing together a wider range of information and strengthening our oversight, we can build on what is working well, identify opportunities to improve and ensure our efforts remain focused on delivering the best possible care and experiences. This underpins our vision of helping communities to stay well and live well within their mental health.”
As part of this ongoing development, new dashboards are bringing together information on organisational culture, experience and performance. This triangulated data provides leaders with a broader picture of how the organisation is working, highlights emerging themes and helps inform decisions about where improvement activity can have the greatest impact.
The trust continues to develop how data, insight, lived experience and organisational learning contribute to decision-making. Information from a range of sources, including organisational feedback, Freedom to Speak Up processes and engagement activity, is helping to identify themes, understand experiences and inform improvement priorities. This ensures the flow of information reaches the right decision maker, empowering our colleagues.
Alongside this, the trust is further embedding a culture of accountability and organisational learning. Improvement activity is supported by clear ownership, ongoing monitoring and regular oversight, helping ensure that learning translates into meaningful and sustained improvements.
This work is supported through the trust’s Governance Improvement Plan, which builds on established arrangements and continues to develop and streamline governance, decision-making, accountability and organisational assurance. It also forms part of the trust’s ongoing response to CQC Well-Led findings and wider organisational reviews.
The trust is continuing to promote psychological safety and an open culture where people feel confident to raise concerns, share ideas and contribute to learning and improvement.
Together, these developments support our purpose of making mental health care easier to access, use and trust in our communities.
