Number 10 Downing Street is setting up a new unit to oversee ‘recovery’ in the NHS and other health priorities, and ‘intervene where delivery is slowing’.

A job advert has been posted for a deputy director to lead the “public service recovery - health” team, based in the Cabinet Office.

The role will be one of a number of deputy directors who will form the leadership of the new Number 10 “delivery unit”. This is being run by Emily Lawson, previously a national director and lead of the covid vaccination programme at NHS England. The directors will “focus departments and delivery partners on the successful delivery of critical outcomes in that area,” the advert says.

HSJ understands the prime minister is setting up to the unit to help ensure the government delivers on its main priorities, including the recovery of public services hit hard by covid. For the NHS the main focus is expected to be on reducing elective waiting lists, delivering the “40 new hospitals” promise, and increasing nurse and GP numbers, though the unit will inevitably study other NHS long-term plan objectives.

The job advert says the deputy director will “use the PM’s backing, a wide and trusted network, and a set of intelligent support solutions to intervene effectively where delivery is slowing, to get projects back on track”.

The recruit will also “work with data experts… to develop a world-class system for collecting information on, and visualising progress in health delivery”; and “build strong relationships across the centre and departments behind a renewed vision for delivery of the mission across government and its delivery partners”.

Earlier this year Sam Jones, former hospital chief executive and NHS England director, joined Number 10 as an adviser on NHS transformation and social care delivery; and Adrian Masters, who was a director at NHS Improvement and a director of health delivery in Downing Street during the 2000s, as an adviser on elective care recovery.

Topics