New acting chairwoman appointed

The Care Quality Commission has appointed Jo Williams as acting chairwoman following the sudden departure of its first chair Lady Barbara Young. Jo Williams was previously Young's deputy and a former Chief Executive of the Royal Mencap Society. She is also a former president of the Association of Directors of Social Services and a champion for social care services throughout a career in local government.

Williams is Co-chair of the Learning Disability Coalition and a member of bodies advising the government on the third sector, carers, learning disabilities and children’s services.

Barbara Young was appointed as the commission’s first chairman when the Care Quality Commission was launched last April. The Commission was quickly marketed as a “super-regulator” because it merged three previous watchdogs – the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, and the Disability Rights Commission.

Young was previously chief executive of the Environment Agency; chairman of English Nature, the BBC’s vice-chairman, and the RSPB’s chief executive. She is involved in the Institute for Public Policy Research and became a Labour peer in 1997 as Baroness Young of Old Scone. She later became a “non-affiliated” member of the House of Lords.

The timing of Young’s departure follows controversy over whether the Commission is doing enough to improve patient care at NHS hospital trusts. Explaining her decision to leave the commission Young said: “Having overseen the major task of creating a single regulator for health and social care and pointed it in the right direction, I have decided it will be for others to take it forward.”

Health secretary Andy Burnham said under Young’s direction the Commission “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. She has set the organisation on a clear path for the future and I am grateful to her for all her hard work and dedication.”

Williams said Young had played a major role in forging the commission’s strategy for the next five years and will be missed.