Grade B - £42,044 (National) or £47,900 (London - for London office based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home.
Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Fixed Term/Secondment until 31 March 2028
Location: Home
based – Home-based – 1 post in the
South, 1 post in the Midlands and 1 post in the North – regular travel across
the relevant region is essential
Candidates must be willing and able to travel within the
stipulated regions. For this reason, we are seeking candidates who live within
the specified regions, and location will be carefully considered to ensure that
the role and responsibilities are manageable. Please note that the locations
you will be required to visit are not always well served by public transport.
Assessment Dates: tbc
Closing date: Sunday 5 April 2026 at 11.59pm
About Us
The CQC, or Care Quality Commission,
is England's independent regulator for health and adult social care,
ensuring services like hospitals, care homes, GPs, and dentists provide safe,
effective, compassionate, high-quality care, by registering, monitoring,
inspecting, and rating providers, and taking action to improve standards for
the public.
Through the dedication of our expert teams, we monitor against key questions
like whether care is safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, giving
the public assurance and driving improvement.
One of our main commitments is to become a truly inclusive organisation and to
role model a diverse and representative culture. To do so, we work with a
variety of networks, including the Disability Equality Network, Race Equality
Network and LGBT+ Equality Network.
We are now looking for people to Chair our Independent Care Education and Treatment
reviews of people with a learning disability and autistic people in long-term
segregation in hospital. These roles are to join us on a full-time basis for a
fixed-term/secondment until 31st March 2028.
Why this could be a great role for you…
This is a unique opportunity
for an experienced mental health and/or learning disability professional with
in-depth knowledge of the Human Rights Act and the Mental Health Act to join
our compassionate regulatory organisation.
In this vital role, you will directly influence and advocate for the human
rights of some of the most vulnerable people currently detained under the Mental Health
Act. You will be responsible for the comprehensive and independent review of peoples
care and treatment. You will be making recommendations to services to work
towards and make real improvements for people lives.
What’s more, you will be part of an organisation whose vision is that everyone
receives safe, effective and compassionate care. We will provide you with
strong NHS pension contributions, generous annual leave and access to wellbeing
and development opportunities, ensuring you’re supported to do work that truly
matters.
So, if you are ready to use your expertise to make real change and protect
people’s rights to have a safer, fairer health and social care system, read on
and apply today.
What you will bring…
To be considered for the
role of the Chair of Independent Care and treatment reviews, you will need:
- Experience of working in or with inpatient mental health and/or learning
disability services
- In-depth knowledge and a working understanding of the Human Rights Act, the
MHA, and the Code of Practice
- A passion and commitment to improve the lives and experience of people detained
under the Mental Health Act.
What you’ll be doing…
As an independent Chair of
Care Education and treatment reviews, you will lead an independent team to review
the full care and treatment of people with a learning disability and autistic
people in long-term segregation in hospital.
Leading this small team, you will co-ordinate onsite activities. You will speak
with people using services, families, carers, staff and other stakeholders to
ensure each person’s lived experience is heard and respected.
You will utilise your knowledge to challenge care that does not meet the
requirements of the Mental Health Act Code of Practice and highlight risks of
human rights breaches. As part of the role, you will make clear, time-bound
recommendations that reduce restrictions and support safe, meaningful progress
towards leaving long term segregation and working towards discharge. You will
be responsible for following up with services to ensure that progress is being
made against the recommendations and highlighting any regulatory concerns.
Additionally, you will:
- Lead focused reviews of an individual’s full care and treatment.
- Engage with commissioners, clinicians and stakeholders to support
implementation of recommendations
- Identify and escalate safeguarding concerns to inspection colleagues
- Support delivery of the IC(E)TR programme before, during and after the reviews.
- Influence and inform the wider
inspection programme.
Other organisations may
call this role Independent Care Review Chair, Independent Care Review
Lead, Care Review Panel Chair, Clinical Review Chair, Mental Health Review
Chair, Independent Care Governance Lead, Chair of Care and Treatment Reviews,
or Care Quality Review Lead.
Compliance
Note for internal candidates:
This is a secondment/fixed term
opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on
secondments. You must discuss your application with your line
manager before applying.
To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to
work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the
role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some
roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.
Next steps
If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.
You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description
If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Meryll Paterson Operations Manager (MHA Operation Manager
(ICETR) –
[email protected]. For general enquiries, please email
[email protected].
The Benefits
We
offer a wide range of benefits, including:
- Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
- Training and development opportunities.
- Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
- NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
- Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!
Please see our benefits page for the full list.
Equity for all
We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.
We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact
[email protected]. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.
We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.
We welcome
applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support
and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:
- Age
- Sex
- Gender identity or expression
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Ethnicity
- Disability
Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.
A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:
- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.