Health Committee approves new CQC head
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- Published: Wednesday, 09 December 2015 07:42
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The Government's candidate to be the next chair of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Peter Wyman, has appeared in front of the Commons Health Committee for a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing. They were pleased to endorse his appointment and wish him well as he takes up his post. Their only reservation was his lack of experience in clinical settings, which they felt could be addressed.
Peter Wyman CBE the new Chair of the CQC is an accountant but told the Committee that he had experienced ‘a ton of bureaucracy’ related to regulation as chair of Yeovil District Hospital Foundation Trust, and that he wanted to make the CQC regime "less burdensome" for providers. He said he wanted the watchdog to invest in technology to enable it to start looking more at "outputs and outcomes" rather than inputs. Improving CQC staff morale would also be a key priority because it was "very low", he said.
In July, the Secretary of State for Health wrote to the Health Committee to unvite them to hold a pre-appointment hearing once a preferred candidate for the post of CQC Chair had been selected. The hearing took place on 1 December 2015 and addressed Mr Wyman’s background as an accountant, his commitment to patient care and his views on the challenges facing the CQC and its board.
They examined his views on governance of the CQC Board, its ability to respond to new models of care delivery in the NHS and the core purpose of the organisation. They also asked Mr Wyman to discuss how, if appointed, he would approach matters relating to CQC’s inspection model, its budgetary constraints and its relationship with other health regulators.
On the basis of the discussions during the pre-appointment hearing, the Committee was ‘satisfied that Peter Wyman has the professional competence and personal independence required of the Chair of the Care Quality Commission’ and were pleased to endorse his appointment.
Their only reservation was his lack of experience in clinical settings. As a way of overcoming this lack of experience, they recommended that at the beginning of his tenure he be given the opportunity to spend time in a wide range of health and care settings to meet clinical staff, patients and carers. During the hearing Mr Wyman highlighted his intention to improve staff morale within the CQC. We recommend that he use the opportunity of these visits to understand staff morale in clinical settings as well.
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