Lansley announces shake-up of trust regulator Monitor

23 Nov 10
The board of the NHS foundation trust regulator Monitor is to be overhauled, with a new chair and more members, the government has announced.

By Lucy Phillips

23 November 2010

The board of the NHS foundation trust regulator Monitor is to be overhauled, with a new chair and more members, the government has announced.   

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wrote to current chair Steve Bundred last week outlining the new arrangements at Monitor, which is being turned into a full-blown economic regulator from April 2012. From April 2013, it will take on responsibility for all NHS providers of health and social care in England.

Lansley wrote: ‘In the circumstances, I consider it essential that we review the governance model and, over time, put in place new arrangements. The forthcoming [health] Bill will set out plans for a larger Monitor board with an appropriate balance of non-executive and executive members. You have confirmed your support for this approach, recognising that this process necessarily begins with the recruitment of a chair with the future role in mind.’  

Bundred will remain in place until an appointment is made, probably in the spring. The recruitment process will begin shortly, with interviews expected to take place in the New Year.   

Bundred took up his post at Monitor in May after six and a half years as chief executive of the Audit Commission. The appointment, by previous health secretary Andy Burnham, was for four years and was due to end on April 30, 2014.

Responding to Lansley in a letter dated today [November 23], Bundred wrote: ‘I fully recognise that the Monitor envisaged by the proposals in your white paper will be a very different body from the one I was appointed to chair. Subject to parliamentary approval, it will have not just a wider role but a completely new set of functions and as such I acknowledge that it is appropriate for this new body to have a new board.’

According to the white paper Equityand excellence: Liberating the NHS Monitor’s new remit will include licensing health providers, regulating prices, promoting competition and managing universal access.

In an interviewwith Public Finance in the summer Bundred declared it an ‘exciting period’ to be working in the health service.

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