Will regional directors make a difference to healthcare?
As part of a new focus on supporting and improving trusts, NHS improvement will scrap its regulation department and replace it with seven regional directors.
Although the directors will have formal regulatory powers, they will ‘try to drive improvement rather than use the hard end tools of regulation’, said NHS Improvement chief executive Ian Dalton.
The new directorates will be jointly run by NHSI and NHS England and will reflect a ‘mindset change’ within NHSI, said Mr Dalton.
The directors will still carry out regulatory functions under the 2012 Health and Social Care Act in relation to mergers and formal intervention.
Many decisions about the oversight and support of the NHS and organisations had previously been made in London, regardless of where the people affected by those decisions were, which had been disadvantageous, claimed Mr Dalton. He said the new system is a process of devolution.
Further information
Health Service Journal: NHS regional directors to be given regulatory powers