Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Health and Social Care Bill
5:00 pm
Findlay Scott: Our starting point has consistently been, as Sir Ian Kennedy said in his report on events in Bristol, that it must be for the employer first and foremost to deal with issues of poor performance and misconduct. The challenge within the national health service has been translating that into effective practice. Clinical governance has come a long way in the past 10 years. We see the appointment of responsible officers as a further strengthening of local governance and as a reinforcement of local responsibilities. It also delivers a second huge benefit to us—clearer arrangements for the interaction between national and local regulation. It is not about shifting responsibility because such responsibility already exists. The measure is about clarifying and codifying responsibility, which has sometimes not been lived up to.