Good Governance Handbook - HQIP

Research Governance applies to everyone connected to healthcare research,
whether as a chief investigator, care professional, researcher or their
employer(s) or support staff.
The Research Governance Framework 30 defines the broad principles of good research
governance and is key to ensuring that health and social care research is conducted to
high scientific and ethical standards.
NB: The framework is currently under review in line with statements in the White
Paper ‘Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS: “The Government will cut the
bureaucracy involved in medical research. We have asked the Academy of Medical
Sciences to conduct an independent review of the regulation and governance of
medical research. In the light of this review we will consider the legislation affecting
medical research, and the bureaucracy that flows from it, and bring forward plans for
radical simplification.”
5.6 Staff Governance
In Scotland staff governance focuses on how NHS Scotland staff are managed and feel
they are managed by one of Scotland’s largest employers. 31
Staff governance is the third pillar of the governance framework (alongside clinical
and financial governance) within which NHS Boards, must operate. The NHS Reform
(Scotland) Act 2004 makes NHS employers legally accountable for staff governance, in
the same way that they are already responsible under law for the quality of clinical
care and for appropriate financial management.
The Staff Governance Standard 32 is the key policy document which defines the five
elements that make up staff governance specifying that staff are entitled to be: well
informed; appropriately trained; involved in decisions which affect them; treated
fairly and consistently; and provided with an improved and safe working
environment.
NHS employers must be able to show that they have systems which not only identify
areas for improvement around staff governance, but also develop and monitor action
plans. The Staff Governance Standard is monitored by the Partnership Forums in
each NHS Board through the national staff survey and through the Self Assessment
Audit Tool (SAAT). The SAAT sets out the key measures that demonstrate progress
towards meeting exemplary employer status.
30 Department of Health, Research Governance Framework for health and Social Care, August 2010
31 http://www.staffgovernance.scot.nhs.uk/what-is-staff-governance/overview/
32 http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/psu/documents/staff_governance_standard.pdf
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