CQC chief resigns over maternity failings

Sir Julian Hartley, Chief Executive the Care Quality Commission which is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care services in England, has resigned.

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

Mr Hartley had previously spent a decade leading the trust and said that in light of that inquiry, his role at the CQC, “has become incompatible with the important conversations happening about care at Leeds.”

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

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

Mr Streeting said the investigation would examine what had “gone so catastrophically wrong” at the trust’s maternity services at both Leeds General Infirmary and St James’ University Hospital.

Earlier this year, a BBC investigation revealed the deaths of at least 56 babies and two mothers over the past five years may have been prevented. In a statement reacting to the inquiry’s announcement, the trust said it was “taking significant steps to address improvements.”

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

He was appointed chief executive of the hospital regulator last December having spent 21 months leading NHS Providers, a health service trade body.

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

They welcomed Mr Hartley’s resignation and questioned his original appointment. “The fact that he was head of Leeds teaching hospitals over such a large period of time, where maternity care was substandard should have raised alarm bells within the system to prevent him becoming Chief Executive of such a large regulator in the first instance,” they said.

A whistleblower at the trust, who has raised concerns about maternity, also said they were pleased he’d gone. “Its been dire for many years, including under his watch. Him being the head of CQC was a scandal when staff like us have been complaining to the regulator about unsafe care. Things need to change,” she said.

A statement from a broader group of bereaved and harmed Leeds families said that while they welcomed his resignation, “we do not accept his apology.” Mr Hartley’s CQC role, they added, “has always been a scandal hiding in plain sight. Just as it has been down to bereaved families to prove the total failings of the CQC in their inspection processes and lack of regulatory action in Leeds, this now, again, has fallen onto families to highlight.”

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

The chair of the CQC Professor Sir Mike Richards said that while Mr Hartley’s resignation was “a huge loss” he understood that his previous job at Leeds “may undermine trust and confidence in the CQC’s regulation.”

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

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

The inquiry into care at Leeds is the fifth investigation into maternity services at a single NHS trust since 2013.