Parliamentary activity

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting MP) has made the following statement:

Ensuring strong and accountable NHS leadership will be critical to fixing a broken NHS and delivering our Health Mission. We know the important role that high quality leadership plays in fostering a positive, compassionate, and transparent culture within the NHS while ensuring that local organisations are anchors of growth and opportunity in the areas that they serve.

Currently, NHS managers and leaders are not a regulated profession. Today, I am announcing that the Department of Health and Social Care is launching a 12-week consultation on options for the regulation of NHS managers, as part of a programme of work to meet the government’s manifesto commitment to introduce professional standards for, and regulation of, NHS managers.

This issue, and the related question of the duty of candour, has been variously highlighted by the Kark review (2019), the Infected Blood Inquiry (2024) and the ongoing Thirlwall Inquiry into events at the Countess of Chester hospital.

It is essential that managers are also supported with the skills they need to deliver transformation and increase productivity in the NHS, which is why today’s consultation forms part of a wider programme of leadership and management development work to equip the NHS with the leaders needed to deliver our 10 Year Plan. This includes establishing a College of Executive and Clinical Leadership to champion and enhance the support available to NHS leaders, and asking Sir Gordon Messenger, through the 10 Year Plan process, to look at how we can accelerate efforts to develop more systematic talent management in the NHS.

This consultation seeks views from all partners, including health and care organisations, regulators, professional bodies, health and care managers and senior leaders, the public, patients, and other health and care staff on the most effective way to strengthen oversight and accountability of NHS managers.

We are seeking views on:

the type of regulation that may be most appropriate for managers

which managers should be in scope for any future regulatory system

what kind of body should exercise such a regulatory function

what types of standards managers should be required to demonstrate as part of a future system of regulation

the sequencing of the introduction of a regulatory regime for NHS managers, alongside work that is already being undertaken by NHS England to support their development

a new professional duty of candour to cover NHS managers, and making managers accountable for responding to concerns about patient safety.

We are today also publishing a separate report on the findings of the department’s call for evidence (launched in April 2024) on the existing statutory duty of candour on providers, which is a key step to fulfilling a recommendation from the Infected Blood Inquiry. We will use the findings of our consultation on manager regulation, and the call for evidence, to help inform the final response to the department’s review of the statutory duty of candour.

Views from partners will be critical in informing further policy decisions during the next phase of this work to support and improve NHS leadership. We will publish our findings and set out next steps following the closure of the consultation.

Answering body: Department of Health and Social Care

My Rt. Hon. friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay) has made the following Written Statement:

I am today announcing the Terms of Reference for the Thirlwall Inquiry into the wider circumstances around what happened at the Countess of Chester Hospital, following the convictions of Lucy Letby.

When deciding to launch a statutory inquiry at the request of the families, I was clear that they must be involved in shaping its scope. I am pleased that Lady Justice Thirlwall and her team have worked closely with the families and key stakeholders to ensure that the Inquiry will get them the answers that they need and that lessons are learned from these horrific events.

The Inquiry will investigate three broad areas:

The experiences of the parents of the babies named in the indictment.

The conduct of clinical and non-clinical staff and management, as well as governance and escalation processes in relation to concerns being raised about Lucy Letby and whether these structures contributed to the failure to protect babies from her.

The effectiveness of governance, external scrutiny and professional regulation in keeping babies in hospital safe, including consideration of NHS culture.

The Terms of Reference have today been published on Gov.UK. I have deposited copies of the Terms of Reference in the Libraries of Both Houses.

The Inquiry’s work will now be a matter for the Judge. Lady Justice Thirlwall has indicated that she does not currently intend to appoint a panel to support her in this work, though the appointment of an assessor will be kept under review. I will ensure that the Inquiry has the resources it needs to carry out this important work and to continue to support the families.

I know Lady Justice Thirlwall and her team will undertake the Inquiry thoroughly and as swiftly as possible.