Spending watchdog has questions about civil servants’ departures

Caroline Landon (35449209)

QUESTIONS over the future governance of the Health Department and whether two senior officials received pay-offs for leaving their roles need answering, the head of the States spending watchdog has said.

Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, is considering raising the issues in relation to the departures of Health Department director-general Caroline Landon and chief nurse Rose Naylor as part of this week’s States sitting.

The government confirmed last week that both Ms Landon and Ms Naylor – two of the most senior civil servants within the health service – are to step down from their roles at the end of this month.

Rose Naylor Picture: ROB CURRIE. (35449212)

Their departures come after a tumultuous few years for the department, which has been hit with a series of damning reviews about the way it is run and the culture that persists there.

Deputy Feltham said that she has a number of outstanding queries relating to the departure of former chief operating officer John Quinn in January, including whether he received a pay-off, and added that she would ‘certainly be asking further questions around these two departures as well’.

She continued: ‘One of the streams of work we were planning anyway was putting the terms of reference together for a review of governance in health and social care.

‘We will be looking at health governance as a formal review – that was already planned and is unrelated to this [the departures of Ms Landon and Ms Naylor] but will obviously pick up on some of the issues.

‘What I would be concerned about is what the next steps are to ensure good governance is in place within Health.’

The government has said it will be making no further comment on the departures of Ms Landon and Ms Naylor until interim arrangements had been established for their replacements.

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