Dido Harding to step down as chair of NHS Improvement

Tory peer had hoped to be NHS England’s new chief executive but was rejected

Dido Harding will leave her role with the NHS in October (Reuters)

Baroness Dido Harding is to step down from her role as chair of NHS Improvement later this year after missing out on becoming chief executive of NHS England.

NHS England has confirmed reports the Conservative peer and former head of the much-criticised Covid-19 test and trace service has written to health secretary Sajid Javid today to say she will not ask to be reappointed when her term ends in October.

The former Talk Talk boss had wanted to replaced Sir Simon Stevens as head of the NHS in England but was reportedly ruled out by Sajid Javid when he took over as health secretary after Matt Hancock’s resignation in June.

Baroness Harding has been chair of NHS Improvement for four years. It is responsible for overseeing NHS trusts in England but has been soft merged with NHS England since 2018. Under the goverment’s proposed Health and Care Bill it will be formerly merged with NHS England from April next year.

According to the Health Service Journal, Harding sent a letter to Sajid Javid today in which she said she felt she has overseen successful work to bring NHSI together with NHS England and made progress with the NHS workforce plan and now is the right time to leave the role.

Her bid to become head of NHS England drew widespread criticism because of her political stance. When she was made chair of NHS Improvement in 2017 she refused to give up the Tory whip in the House of Lords. She is also married to Conservative MP John Penrose.

Sir Simon Stevens stepped down as head of the NHS earlier this month to take up a seat in the House of Lords.

He was replaced by Amanda Pritchard, his previous number two at NHS England and a veteran of the NHS having joined the service in 1997.

Harding has faced multiple attacks during the coronavirus pandemic after she was appointed to lead the test and trace service in May 2020, reporting directly to the prime minister Boris Johnson.

Appearing before MPs last year she had to admit the service had failed to predict the rise in demand for testing in September as schools and universities returned.

In October last year, papers for the government’s Sage committee said test and trace was having only a “marginal” impact as the scale of infections and winter wave of the virus forced England back into lockdown.