CQC appoints social care chief inspector

The Care Quality Commission has announced the appointment of its first chief inspector for social care. Andrea Sutcliffe will join the regulator from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, where she is currently chief executive.
Before joining the institute she was chief executive of the Appointments Commission for five years and was also an executive director at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for seven years.

Her appointment was welcomed by health minister Norman Lamb.

He said: “The millions of people receiving care services, and their families, deserve the same level of clarity and rigour that NHS hospital patients deserve and will get.

“It is vital that care users and patients get the sort of joined up care that is at the heart of the new care and support system and I would expect the new chief inspector to champion this.

“Andrea Sutcliffe brings a wealth of experience to the role and I am confident that she will both be a champion of good practice as well as ruthless in identifying and leading improvements in those areas where poor care exists. She has an excellent record of delivering change and I look forward to working with her in this new and pivotal position.”