Commission for Social Care Inspection director of inspection, regulation and review Paul Snell has been appointed as its new chief inspector.
He will succeed David Behan when he becomes director general for social care at the Department of Health, a position he is likely to assume by September.
Snell will lead the inspectorate through massive change. It will cede its children's function to an enlarged Ofsted next year, and its adult function will merge with the Healthcare Commission in 2008 to create a new health and social care inspectorate.
Meanwhile, the CSCI's annual report, out this week, showed a fall in the number of enforcement actions it took against care providers in 2005-6. It took action 7,786 times in 2005-6 compared with 9,514 times in 2004-5. Urgent actions fell from 4,488 to 3,750.