Barbara returns to health

Long-standing IHM member and former president Barbara Young – or to use her official title since becoming a life peer in 1997, Baroness Young of Old Scone – has just been appointed chair of what is currently one of the highest profile organisations in health and social care, the new Care Quality Commission. And she is relishing the opportunity.

Five weeks into the job, and new Care Quality Commission chair Barbara Young has found that 20 years after leaving the health service (and swearing never to return) it’s amazing how much has changed – and how much has stayed the same.

The head-hunters got in touch at just the right time, and with the right opportunity, to convince her to come back to health and social care. Barbara views changing jobs as the best form of development a manager can experience, and after eight years as chief executive of the Environment Agency, this was an exciting and opportune offer.

She explains: “It was time for me to move to a new challenge and this is a chance to be involved in something that’s important to every human being in the country, central to the public and political consciousness – and really plays to my past strengths.”

Diverse career

Barbara started out in the public affairs department of the South East Scotland regional hospital board in 1971 – and joined IHM at roughly the same time. Her career has since taken her to organisations as diverse as the Environment Agency, English Nature, the BBC, utilities company AWG plc, the King’s Fund, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Parkside Health Authority and the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Together these experiences have given her some insight into what regulation can do to improve standards, she says. “The job needs that, and knowing how to go about regulation in a non-bureaucratic, modern way that focuses on outputs rather than getting bogged down in procedures.”

Barbara strongly believes that the Care Quality Commission and the people who lead it must be both independent and authoritative.

“That independence must be evidence-based, and it also involves building trust. Users, patients and public need to know you’re on their side.”

Best practice

She sees the new organisation’s biggest challenge as fitting together the various pieces of the regulatory jigsaw to create a sensible framework. Ultimately her aim is to pull together best practice from all sectors and regulation on an international scale.

But the first task is to merge three existing bodies – the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Healthcare Commission, and Mental Health Act Commission – to draw most value from their distinctive models and ways of thinking.

Meanwhile the health service as a whole needs to be introduced to the idea of registration as a means of improving the quality of services, says Barbara. “The overall understanding of regulation in health is embryonic compared with social care. We want to work in partnership with people so they’re comfortable with the process and how both encouragement and sanctions work, not hit them with a big stick.”

New ground

It’s 20 years since Barbara was chair and then president of the IHM – or the IHSM as it was – and she feels that there is a ‘big black hole’ in her health service knowledge. But she’s excited to be breaking new ground in parts of the sector, such as primary care, where there has been relatively little regulation in the past.

The task may also be daunting, but Barbara has proven support – she is still in regular contact with the other five members of her 1985 King’s Fund learning set. “None of us are in the NHS anymore, but over the years we’ve offered each other – and our organisations – some solid co-consultancy, and if I ever need advice, they’re the people I call.”

Further information

The Care Quality Commission is due to replace the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Healthcare Commission, and Mental Health Act Commission from April 2009. It will also take on the new responsibility of assessing the quality of primary care and general practice, and will have an annual budget of £155 million.