CQC chief resigns over maternity failings

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator for all adult health and social care services in England, has resigned.

The announcement comes just days after an independent investigation into maternity care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was announced.

Mr Hartley had already spent a decade running the trust and said that in light of this investigation his role at the CQC “became incompatible with important ongoing conversations about care in Leeds”.

Some families who received poor maternity care had demanded his resignation.

On Monday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced an independent investigation into the “repeated failures” of the Leeds trust.

Mr Streeting said the inquiry would examine what “happened so catastrophically” at the trust’s maternity services at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital.

Earlier this year, a BBC investigation found that the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers in the past five years could have been avoided. In a statement reacting to news of the investigation, the trust said it was “taking significant steps to make improvements”.

Several families who had campaigned for the inquiry had questioned Mr Hartley’s role within the CQC, given he had led the trust for 10 years, until 2023.

He was appointed chief executive of the hospital regulator last December, after spending 21 months at the helm of NHS Providers, a professional health services body.

Amarjit Kaur and Mandip Singh Matharoo’s daughter Asees was born stillborn in January 2024 – a trust investigation found care issues that could have prevented her death.

They welcomed Mr Hartley’s resignation and questioned his initial appointment. “The fact that he ran Leeds University Hospitals for such a long period, where maternity care was substandard, should have raised alarm bells within the system to prevent him becoming chief executive of such a major regulator,” they said.

A trust whistleblower, who raised concerns about maternity, also said he was happy she was leaving. “It has been disastrous for many years, including under his leadership. Him being head of the CQC was a scandal while employees like us were complaining to the regulator about unsafe care. Things need to change,” she said.

A statement from a wider group of bereaved and injured Leeds families said that while they welcomed his resignation, “we do not accept his apology”. Mr Hartley’s role at the CQC, they added, “has always been a scandal hiding in plain sight. Just as the onus was on the bereaved families to prove the CQC’s utter failures in their inspection processes and lack of regulatory action in Leeds, it is now, once again, the onus on the families to highlight it.”

In his statement, Sir Julian said he was “sorry that some families have suffered harm and loss during this time” and pledged to cooperate with the investigation “so that families can get the transparency and answers they need and deserve”.

CQC chairman Professor Sir Mike Richards said that while Mr Hartley’s resignation was “a huge loss”, he understood his previous job at Leeds “could undermine confidence in the CQC’s regulation”.

On Monday, when the inquest was announced, Mr Richards and Wes Streeting said they had confidence in Sir Julian.

A rapid review of maternity services in England is currently underway while the largest inquiry into maternity care in the history of the NHS, centered on services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, is due to report next summer.

The Leeds Care Inquiry is the fifth investigation into maternity services in a single NHS trust since 2013.