Baroness Young has announced her resignation as chair of the UK’s Care Quality Commission (CQC), less than one year after the commission took up its formal responsibilities, and just days after it was heavily criticised over how the quality of patient care in hospitals was monitored. Although Lady Young told ministers of her decision to leave on November 26, she will continue in the post until February 1.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said her resignation was “dramatic news,” that would “inevitably raise very serious questions about Baroness Young’s confidence in the government and in the Health Secretary.”
However, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said Lady Young had “set the organisation on a clear path for the future,” and that under her direction it “has already made a strong impact in putting patients and users of social care services at the heart of its mission to ensure the highest standards of care and patient safety.”
Baroness Young joined the CQC in May 2008, which took over the work formerly conducted by the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the Healthcare Commission and the Mental Health Act Commission in April 2009. She claims she has “overseen the major task of creating a single regulator for health and social care and pointed it in the right direction,” but now believes it is right “for others to take it forward.”
Dame Jo Williams, former chief executive of charity Mencap, will take charge of the CQC until a permanent successor is found.