18.01.16
DfE perm secretary to take over Dame Una O’Brien’s role
The Department for Education’s permanent secretary Chris Wormald will now lead the Department of Health after Dame Una O’Brien announced she will step down from the job in April.
Wormald comes with the approval of Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, who said he has done a “superb job” in leading the education department over the last four years.
“He will bring a wealth of leadership, implementation and policy experience to the role at the Department of Health and a great understanding of public services,” he added.
“I look forward to working with him on the challenges ahead for the department. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Una for her enormous contribution to the civil service over the past 25 years.”
Education secretary Nicky Morgan also praised Wormald for his work in major reforms to “restore rigour to exams, transform the school system with academies and free schools, and to support the most vulnerable children”.
He was appointed permanent secretary in March 2012 after stints in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Communities & Local Government.
The permanent secretary will pick up the leadership of the department during turbulent times for the health service, with the latest Monitor figures indicating hospitals have already racked up a £1.6bn half-year deficit.
But it is also a time of immense changes across the NHS. Providers are being told 2016 will be the right time to “sort themselves out” by creating stability despite the widespread cash reds, and the government has recently devised a £1.8bn bailout pot to focus on reforming inefficient services.
Fully backed by the government and NHS England’s planning guidance, Lord Carter’s mammoth efficiency review is also just around the corner. Further details of the scheme, expected to find £5bn of savings in efficiency reforms alone, will be announced this year.
(Top image c. PA Images)