Major re-organisation at department of health

The department of health will be re-organised into 12
directorates with a single departmental board working across both
health and social care, writes Jonathan
Pearce.

Nigel Crisp, doh permanent secretary and NHS chief executive,
said the re-organisation will remove the previous distinctions
between the NHS Executive, the public health group and the social
care group, creating a delivery-focused department.

The paper concentrates on “supporting delivery at the front
line”, including “greater bottom-up local ownership” and simplified
plans, which will involve local modernisation reviews over the
summer to create local three-year implementation plans.

Implementation will also be decentralised to “the most local
level”, says the paper, including closer working with government
regional offices and encouraging local partnerships to integrate
health and social care services. Current NHS regional directors
will be replaced with regional directors of health and social care
from April 2003.

Of the new directorates, the two of most interest to those in
the social care field will be the children, older people and social
care services directorate, led by Denise Platt, and the public
involvement, nursing, mental health, disability and allied health
professions directorate, led by Sarah Mullally.

Platt’s responsibilities will include health and social
services for older people and children, health services for women
and maternity services, general social care policy, and the Social
Services Inspectorate.

Mullally’s directorate includes mental health policy,
services and legislation, and health and social care for disabled
people and those with long-term conditions.

DoH, Focusing on Delivery available from www.doh.gov.uk/dhreview/index.htm

The new DoH directorates and their directors are:

Public Health and Clinical Quality Directorate – Liam
Donaldson (chief medical officer)

Chief Operating Officer Directorate – Neil McKay (chief
operating officer)

Directorate for Children, Older People and Social Care Services
– Denise Platt (chief inspector social services)

Directorate of Public Involvement, Nursing, Mental Health,
Disability and Allied Health Professions – Sarah Mullally
(chief nursing officer)

Policy Directorate – Sheila Adam

Directorate of External and Corporate Affairs – Hugh
Taylor

Human Resources Directorate – Andrew Foster

Research Analysis and Information Directorate – Sir John
Pattison

Finance Directorate – Richard Douglas

Modernisation Agency – David Fillingham

Communications Directorate – Sian Jarvis (acting
director)

Strategy Unit – Chris Ham