Appointment details

Non-Executive Directors of the Care Quality Commission

Summary

• Organisation: Care Quality Commission
• Sponsor department: Department of Health and Social Care
• Location: Various
• Sectors: Health and Social Care
• Number of vacancies: 3
• Time commitment: 3 day(s) per month
• Remuneration: £7883 per annum
• Length of term: Ministers will determine the length of the appointment, which will be for 3 years
• Application deadline: Midday on 10 March 2025

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Timeline for this appointment

1. Opening date

   27 January 2025

2. Application deadline

   Midday on 10 March 2025

3. Sifting date

   28 March 2025

4. Interviews expected to end on

   30 April 2025

Timeline dates are only an estimate and can change

About the appointment

Introduction from the Chair

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in our Non-Executive Director roles. As the independent regulator, CQC helps ensure health and adult social care services across England are safe and high quality.

This is an exciting time to join the CQC Board. After a challenging 2024, we are making essential changes to the way we work. With the results of internal and external reviews helping guide our work and a new Chief Executive in place, we must now progress the changes necessary to enable us to deliver for all who need us.

We need to transform the way we register providers, improve the number and quality of our assessments of services and deliver clear and effective information for those who use health and care services. We need to ensure providers and our own staff have access to simple, effective systems. We must also work with Government to agree and progress how we assess local authorities and support integrated care systems.

We cannot do this well without a strong, capable Board guiding our work. We are seeking new non-executive members with the skills and ambition to help drive us forward.

If you can help us on this journey, I hope you will apply and I look forward to meeting you.

Ian Dilks OBE

Chair of the Care Quality Commission

Appointment description

The Secretary of State wishes to appoint at least three new Non-Executive Directors to the Board of the CQC.

The CQC plays an important and significant role at a national level. The health and care sector accounts for around 12% of the economy and 20% of public expenditure and is one of the most significant drivers of health, public satisfaction and economic growth.

As a Non-Executive Director of the CQC Board, you will be responsible for helping to ensure the CQC is a successful organisation - in terms of its effectiveness as a regulator, making sure that health and social care services provide safe, high-quality care, and as an employer. Non-Executive Directors play a key role in ensuring continuous organisational improvement, high performance management, excellent customer focus and service delivery, scrutiny, challenge, fairness, accountability, and effective corporate governance.  

CQC is in a period of change following a review of their operational performance. Board members will play a significant role in enabling CQC to deliver the necessary improvements. Non-Executive Directors will specifically: 

• Provide an independent view and creative contribution at board meetings and any committees of which they are members, including ensuring the long-term strategic focus, effectiveness and reputation of the CQC through purposeful and constructive scrutiny and challenge. 

• Monitor and challenge the performance of the CQC’s executive management, in meeting the strategic vision, organisational priorities and business plan objectives including monitoring of organisational performance, service delivery, quality and reputation. Provide assurance regarding the CQC governance, including in relation to periodic reviews of the organisation. 

• Support the Chair and the executive team to ensure the CQC fully embraces and embeds an excellent customer service ethos and delivers accordingly in order to enhance and develop its credibility and reputation. 

• Uphold the values of the CQC to deliver excellence, and demonstrating care, integrity and teamwork into all aspects of its work, and ensure that the organisation promotes equality and diversity for all providers, people who use services, people who work for CQC and other stakeholders. 

Organisation description

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Its purpose is to ensure health and social care services provide safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and the regulator encourages improvement, where providers fall short of CQC’s fundamental standards. Its role is to register providers of services, monitor, inspect and rate, take enforcement action for poor care, and speak independently on matters of quality in health and adult social care services.

CQC receives the large majority (82% in 2023/24) of its funding through fees charged to registered providers, with a much smaller proportion coming from Grant in Aid from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Total fee income in 2023/24 was £223.3m. Adult social care provided 41% of fee income, with 32% coming from NHS trusts, 17% from GP practices, 5% from independent healthcare providers and 4% from dental practices.

Provider fees have remained static since 2019/20. If they had risen in line with inflation, CQC would have received an additional £25.3m in 2023/24.

In terms of employee numbers, the number of directly employed whole-time equivalents was 3,057 in January 2025.

CQC’s strategy sets out 4 strategic ambitions:

1. People and communities: Regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences, focusing on what’s important to people and communities when they access, use and move between services.

2. Smarter regulation: Smarter, more dynamic and flexible regulation that provides up-to-date and high-quality information and ratings, easier ways of working with us and a more proportionate response.

3. Safety through learning: Regulating for stronger safety cultures across health and care, prioritising learning and improvement and collaborating to value everyone’s perspectives.

4. Accelerating improvement: Enabling health and care services and local systems to access support to help improve the quality of care where it’s needed most.

In addition to its role described above, the CQC is required to maintain a statutory committee, Healthwatch England, which acts as a national consumer champion in collecting and disseminating the views of people who use health and social care services. Although Healthwatch England is part of the CQC, it sets its own priorities, has its own brand identity, and speaks with an independent voice.

The National Guardian is a non-statutory appointment by the CQC to lead cultural change in the NHS, to establish and support a strong network of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians. The National Guardian’s Office highlight NHS providers that are successful in creating the right environment for staff to speak up safely and share this best practice across the NHS. It Independently reviews cases where healthcare providers may have failed to follow good practice, working with statutory bodies to take action where needed.

It has been well publicised that the CQC has been, and is still subject to ongoing reviews, regarding its regulatory approach and methodology of assessing health and social care providers. It has been a challenging period for the organisation but it has put in place a recovery plan together with new leadership at the helm, including the appointment of Julian Hartley as Chief Executive.

The findings of the reviews can be accessed from here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-into-the-operational-effectiveness-of-the-care-quality-commission

Board composition

Board meetings are mainly held in London.

Care Quality Commission

2 Redman Place,

London,

E20 1JQ

Upcoming meetings: 26 March 2025, 14 May 2025 and 16 June 2025.

Regulation of appointment

This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website 

Person specification

Essential criteria

• A career record of achievement, with an ability to operate effectively as a non-executive on the board of a high-profile national organisation. 

• An ability to focus on innovation, culture change, and care quality and how to encourage providers to make improvements. 

• An ability to guide the CQC’s strategic direction, and use sound judgement, based on the ability to consider and challenge complex issues from an impartial and balanced viewpoint. 

• Good communication skills, with the ability to work as part of a team, with a positive and constructive style, challenging management recommendations where necessary. 

In addition, one of the NEDs to be appointed must have experience in the provision of mental health services, knowledge of the Mental Health Act, an understanding of the issues and challenges within this sector, and the ability to articulate those in a board setting.  

Desirable criteria

• Experience and understanding of healthcare in England, with an awareness of the issues that can affect both service provision and patient experience, and the ability to articulate those in a board setting.

• Experience and understanding of one or more of the following:

o operational turnaround.

o cultural transformation.

o data-led regulation.

Application and selection process

How to apply

In order to apply you will need to create an account or sign in on the 'Apply for a public appointment' website.

Once you are logged into your account, click on 'apply for this role' and follow the on-screen instructions. To apply, all candidates are required to provide:

• a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• a supporting statement
• equality information
• information relating to any outside interests or reputational issues

Guidance on what to include in your CV/Supporting Statement and tips for applying can be found in the corresponding sections below and on the public appointment website: Publicappointments - GOV.UK.

We will ask you to check and confirm your personal details to ensure your application is accurate.

You will also have the opportunity to make a reasonable adjustment request or apply under the disability confident scheme before you submit your application.

You will also be required to make any declarations related to standards in public life and ensuring public confidence in your supporting statement.  Further information on this can be found in the relevant section below. 

If you are unable to create an account and apply online, or if you have any problems submitting your application online, please contact Rachael Gingell on rachael.gingell@dhsc.gov.uk or 0207 484 9424. 

The Advisory Assessment Panel reserves the right to only consider applications that contain all of the elements listed above, and that arrive before the published deadline for applications.

Overview of the application process

Public appointments are made on merit following a fair and open competition process which is conducted in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. We will deal with your application as quickly as possible and will keep you informed at key stages. We aim to conclude the appointment process within three months of the deadline for applications – this is in accordance with the Governance Code.

The assessment process

1. Ministers are responsible and accountable to Parliament for the public appointments made within their department. As a result, they must be consulted at every stage of the appointments process.

2. An Advisory Assessment Panel (“Panel”) is appointed by Ministers to assist them in their decision making. The role of the Panel is to decide, objectively, which candidates meet the eligibility criteria for the role.

3. At the shortlisting meeting the Panel will assess applications against the eligibility criteria and decide which candidates have best met the criteria, who should be recommended for interview. Ministers will then be consulted on the Panel’s recommended shortlist. If you have applied under the Disability Confident Scheme and you meet all the essential criteria, then you will also be invited for an interview.

4. Once the shortlist has been agreed by Ministers, you will be advised (by e-mail) whether you have been shortlisted. Those shortlisted will be invited to an interview.

5. The Panel will meet again to interview candidates and determine who is appointable to the role. The Panel may invite you to make a brief presentation at the start of the interview and will go on to question you about your skills and experience, including asking specific questions to assess whether you meet the criteria set out for the post. The Panel will also explore with you any potential conflicts of interest or any other issues arising from your personal and professional history which may impact on an appointment decision.

6. Details of the panel’s assessment of interviewed candidates are provided to Ministers, including whether they have judged a candidate to be appointable to the role. It is then for Ministers to determine merit and decide who should be appointed. In some circumstances, Ministers may choose not to appoint any candidates and re-run the competition.

7. Ministers may choose to meet with candidates before deciding the outcome. Candidates should therefore be prepared for a short time gap between interview and a final appointment decision being made. Candidates who have been interviewed will be kept informed of progress.

8. Once the decision on the appointment has been made, interviewed candidates will be advised of the outcome of their application, including whom they may approach for feedback. Successful candidates will be issued with their Terms & Conditions and a letter of appointment should they agree to take up the position.

Further information about appointments, including tips on applying, can be found on our guidance pages on gov.uk.

Advisory Assessment Panel (AAP)

Advisory Assessment Panels (AAP) are chosen by ministers to assist them in their decision-making. These include a departmental official and an independent member. For competitions recruiting non-executive members of a board (apart from the Chair), the panel will usually include a representative from the public body concerned.

AAP’s perform a number of functions, including agreeing an assessment strategy with ministers, undertaking sifting, carrying out interviews in line with the advertised criteria and deciding objectively who meets the published selection criteria for the role before recommending to ministers which candidates they find appointable. It is then for the minister to decide who to appoint to the role.

The panel will include:

• William Vineall, DHSC senior sponsor for CQC, as panel chair

• Ian Dilks, Chair of CQC

• Sarah McClinton, DHSC Chief Social Worker for Adults

• Henrietta Hughes, the Patient Safety Commissioner as an independent panel member

Eligibility criteria

In general, you should have the right to work in the UK to be eligible to apply for a public appointment.

There are a small number of specialist roles that are not open to non-British citizens. Any nationality requirements will be specified in the vacancy details.

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. 

You cannot be considered for a public appointment if:

• you are disqualified from acting as a company director  (under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986);

• have an unspent conviction on your criminal record;

• your estate has been sequestrated in Scotland or you enter into a debt arrangement programme under Part 1 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) as the debtor or have, under Scots law, granted a trust deed for creditors.

When you apply, you should declare if:

• you are, or have been, bankrupt or you have made an arrangement with a creditor at any point, including the dates of this. 

• you are subject to a current police investigation.

You must inform the sponsor department if, during the application process, your circumstances change in respect of any of the above points. 

When you apply you should also declare any relevant interests, highlighting any that you think may call into question your ability to properly discharge the responsibilities of the role you are applying for. You should also declare any other matters which may mean you may not be able to meet the requirements of the Code of Conduct of Board Members (see Outside interests and reputational issues section below)

If you need further advice, please contact rachael.gingell@dhsc.gov.uk.

Security clearance

The successful candidate will be required to undertake Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks in line with the Civil Service guidelines. Additional Security Clearance may also be required for certain roles. However, where this applies, candidates will be notified during the appointment process. Further information on National Security Vetting can be found on the Gov.uk website here.

The Department of Health and Social Care also requires all those appointed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to public appointments, to be a fit and proper person, comparable with the requirements placed on board members in the NHS. As such, the successful candidate will be required to undertake security checks to ensure that you meet these requirements. For more information see the Candidate information pack.  

Additional information for candidates

Equality and diversity

We encourage applications from talented individuals from all backgrounds and across the whole of the United Kingdom. Boards of public bodies are most effective when they reflect the diversity of views of the society they serve.

We collect data about applicants’ characteristics and backgrounds, including information about people’s educational and professional backgrounds, so that we can make sure we are attracting a broad range of people to these roles and that our selection processes are fair for everyone. Without this information, it makes it difficult to see if our outreach is working, if the application process is having an unfair impact on certain groups and whether changes are making a positive difference.

When you submit your application, your responses are collected by the Cabinet Office and the government department(s) managing your application. The data is used to produce management information about the diversity of applicants. You can select “prefer not to say” to any question you do not wish to answer. The information you provide will not be seen by the Advisory Assessment Panel who review applications against the advertised criteria and conduct interviews.

Disability confident

We are a member of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. We use the Disability Confident scheme symbol, along with other like-minded employers, to show our commitment to good practice in employing people with a disability. The scheme helps recruit and retain disabled people. As part of implementing the scheme, we guarantee an interview for anyone with a disability whose application meets the essential criteria for the role, set out in the advert, and who has asked that their application is considered under the scheme. Indicating that you wish your application to be considered under the scheme will in no way prejudice your application. By ‘essential criteria', we mean that you must provide evidence which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria, as set out in the job-advert. When you apply you will have the opportunity to select if you would like your application considered under this scheme.

Reasonable adjustments

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to make sure applicants with disabilities, physical or mental health conditions, or other needs are not substantially disadvantaged when applying for public appointments. This can include changing the recruitment process to enable people who wish to apply to do so.

Some examples of common changes are:

• ensuring that application forms are available in different or accessible formats;
• making adaptations to interview locations;
• allowing candidates to present their skills and experience in a different way;
• giving additional detailed information on the selection / interview process in advance to allow candidates time to prepare themselves;
• allowing support workers, for example sign language interpreters;
• making provision for support animals to attend.

When you apply you will have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments to the application process.

Principles of public life

The Seven Principles of Public Life (also known as the Nolan Principles) apply to anyone who works as a public office-holder.

1. Selflessness

Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

2. Integrity

Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

3. Objectivity

Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

4. Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

5. Openness

Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

6. Honesty

Holders of public office should be truthful.

7. Leadership

Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Code of conduct for board members

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. In support of this, all non-executive board members of UK public bodies must abide by the principles set out in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. The Code sets out the standards expected from those who serve on the boards of UK public bodies and will form part of your terms and conditions of appointment.

Management of outside interests and consideration of reputational issues

Holders of public office are expected to adhere and uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. Before you apply you should consider carefully: 

• any outside interests that you may have, such as shares you may hold in a company providing services to government; 
• any possible reputational issues arising from your past actions or public statements that you have made; 
• and/or - any political roles you hold or political campaigns you have supported; 

which may call into question your ability to do the role you are applying for.

You will need to answer relevant questions in relation to these points when making an application. Many conflicts of interest can be satisfactorily resolved and declaring a potential conflict does not prevent you from being interviewed. If you are shortlisted for an interview, the panel will discuss any potential conflicts with you during that interview, including any proposals you may have to mitigate them and record that in their advice to ministers. Alongside your own declaration, we will conduct appropriate checks, as part of which we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This may include searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information. The successful candidate(s) may be required to give up any conflicting interests and their other business and financial interests may be published in line with organisational policies. 

Details of declared political activity will be published when the appointment is announced, as required by the Governance Code (political activity is not a bar to appointment, but must be declared).

Status of appointment

As this is an office holder appointment, you will not become a member of the Civil Service. You will not be subject to the provisions of employment law.

Appointment and tenure of office

Appointments are for the term set out in this advert, with the possibility of re-appointment for a further term, at the discretion of Ministers.  Any re-appointment is subject to satisfactory annual appraisals of performance during the first term in the post. There is no automatic presumption of reappointment; each case should be considered on its own merits, taking into account a number of factors including, but not restricted to, the diversity of the current board and its balance of skills and experience. In most cases, the total time served in post will not exceed more than two terms or ten years in any one post. 

Remuneration, allowances and abatement

Remuneration for this role is treated as employment income and will be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

You can claim reimbursement for reasonable travel and subsistence costs which are properly and necessarily incurred on official business, in line with the travel and subsistence policy and rates for the organisation to which you are applying. However these payments are taxable as earnings and will be subject to tax and national insurance, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid. 

Pension and redundancy

This is an office holder appointment and does not attract any benefits under any Civil Service Pension Scheme. You will not be eligible for redundancy pay as you are not an employee. No other arrangements have been made for compensation upon the end of your term of appointment because an office holder who is appointed for a limited duration would have no expectation of serving beyond that period.

Application feedback

We will notify you of the status of your application. We regret that we are only able to offer detailed feedback to candidates who have been unsuccessful at the interview stage.

How to complain

We aim to process all applications as quickly as possible and to treat all applicants with courtesy.

 

Please contact Millie Simpson on the public appointments team in the first instance if you would like to make a complaint regarding your application at millie.simpson@dhsc.gov.uk. They will acknowledge your complaint upon receipt and respond within 15 working days.

How to complain to Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA)

If you are not content with the appointing department’s response you may wish to further complain to the Commissioner at publicappointments@csc.gov.uk.Further information on how the Commissioner handles complaints can be found on the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ website https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/regulating-appointments/investigating-complaints/

Data protection

The Cabinet Office will use your data in line with our privacy policy.

The DHSC privacy notice can be found at DHSC privacy notice - GOV.UK.

Contact details

For further information regarding the role of CQC and the role of CQC Non-Executive Director please contact:

Name: Meena Paterson / Jamie Samuel

Tel: 0113 2545174 / 0113 2546747

Email: CQCSponsorship@dhsc.gov.uk

Attachments

• CQC NED Candidate Pack