Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions, if any, they had with the Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust about options for the Trust to make major savings, before the Trust proposed to establish a wholly-owned company to run estates and other support services; and what options were considered.

Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust briefed all members of the Somerset Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprint (Somerset and Taunton Foundation Trust, Somerset Partnership Foundation Trust, Somerset Clinical Comissioning Group and Somerset County Council) about its plans to establish a wholly-owned company to run its estates and other support services. As required by the National NHS Standard Contract, the Trust sought and received permission from Somerset CCG, Dorset CCG and NHS England Specialist Commissioning for some of the estates services previously delivered by the Trust to be delivered by the new wholly-owned subsidiary.

NHS Improvement has advised that following legal advice sought by the Trust, informal staff consultation took place in October 2017 and that a further formal consultation took place in November 2017.

National Health Service organisations are responsible for deciding locally the most appropriate structures they need to deliver services to their patients within available resources.