Grade B - £42,044 (National) or £47,900 (London - for London office-based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home.
Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Secondment until 31 March 2028
Location: Home-based – 1 post in the South, 1 post in the Midlands and 1 post in the North – regular travel across the relevant region is essential

Candidates must be willing and able to travel within the stipulated regions. For this reason, we are seeking candidates who live within the specified regions, and their location will be carefully considered to ensure that the role and responsibilities are manageable. Please note that the locations you will be required to visit are not always well served by public transport.

Assessment Dates: tbc

Closing Date: Sunday 5 April 2026 at 11.59pm

About Us

The CQC, or Care Quality Commission, is England's independent regulator for health and adult social care, ensuring services like hospitals, care homes, GPs, and dentists provide safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care by registering, monitoring, inspecting, and rating providers, and taking action to improve standards for the public.

Through the dedication of our expert teams, we monitor against key questions like whether care is safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, giving the public assurance and driving improvement.

One of our main commitments is to become a truly inclusive organisation and to role model a diverse and representative culture. To do so, we work with a variety of networks, including the Disability Equality Network, Race Equality Network and LGBT+ Equality Network.

We are now looking for people to Chair our Independent Care Education and Treatment reviews of people with a learning disability and autistic people in long-term segregation in hospital. These roles are to join us on a full-time basis for a fixed-term/secondment until 31st March 2028.

Why this could be a great role for you…

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced mental health and/or learning disability professional with in-depth knowledge of the Human Rights Act and the Mental Health Act to join our compassionate regulatory organisation.

In this vital role, you will directly influence and advocate for the human rights of some of the most vulnerable people currently detained under the Mental Health Act. You will be responsible for the comprehensive and independent review of people’s care and treatment. You will be making recommendations to services to work towards and make real improvements for people’s lives.

What’s more, you will be part of an organisation whose vision is that everyone receives safe, effective and compassionate care.

So, if you are ready to use your expertise to make real change and protect people’s rights to have a safer, fairer health and social care system, read on and apply today.

What you will bring…

To be considered for the role of the Chair of Independent Care and Treatment Reviews, you will need:

- Experience of working in or with inpatient mental health and/or learning disability services
- In-depth knowledge and a working understanding of the Human Rights Act, the MHA, and the Code of Practice
- A passion and commitment to improve the lives and experiences of people detained under the Mental Health Act.

What you’ll be doing…

As an independent Chair of Care Education and treatment reviews, you will lead an independent team to review the full care and treatment of people with a learning disability and autistic people in long-term segregation in hospital.

Leading this small team, you will co-ordinate onsite activities. You will speak with people using services, families, carers, staff and other stakeholders to ensure each person’s lived experience is heard and respected.

You will utilise your knowledge to challenge care that does not meet the requirements of the Mental Health Act Code of Practice and highlight risks of human rights breaches. As part of the role, you will make clear, time-bound recommendations that reduce restrictions and support safe, meaningful progress towards leaving long-term segregation and working towards discharge. You will be responsible for following up with services to ensure that progress is being made against the recommendations and highlighting any regulatory concerns.

Additionally, you will:

- Lead focused reviews of an individual’s full care and treatment
- Engage with commissioners, clinicians and stakeholders to support implementation of recommendations
- Identify and escalate safeguarding concerns to inspection colleagues
- Support delivery of the IC(E)TR programme before, during and after the reviews
- Influence and inform the wider inspection programme

Other organisations may call this role Independent Care Review Chair, Independent Care Review Lead, Care Review Panel Chair, Clinical Review Chair, Mental Health Review Chair, Independent Care Governance Lead, Chair of Care and Treatment Reviews, or Care Quality Review Lead.

Compliance

Note for internal candidates:

This is a secondment/fixed-term opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying.

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without a valid right to work, you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

If you’d like an informal chat about the role, contact Meryll Paterson, MHA Operations Manager (ICETR), on [email protected]. For general enquiries, please email [email protected].

The Benefits

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply.

If you need adjustments to our process, visit our accessibility page or contact [email protected].

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks.

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence
Caring
Integrity
Teamwork

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI-generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember, we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.