The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has appointed Kirsty Shaw as chief operating officer.
Kirsty’s career has focused on leading operational change and improvement programmes across a number of public bodies in the environment and food, and agricultural sectors.
She is currently director of transactional services at Natural England and before that she was director of service delivery at the Animal Plant Health Agency and head of standards and commercial support at the Food Standards Agency.
As chief operating officer, Kirsty will provide leadership across CQC’s corporate and customer-facing functions, which include people (human resources), legal services, governance, digital, finance, commercial and the National Customer Service Centre.
She will report to the CQC’s chief executive, Sir David Behan and she will be part of his executive team, including the chief inspectors of hospitals (Professor Ted Baker), of adult social care (Andrea Sutcliffe), and of general practice (Professor Steve Field), and the executive director of strategy and intelligence (Dr Malte Gerhold).
Sir David Behan, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, says: "Kirsty joins CQC with immense experience of leading cultural and operational transformation across a number of bodies.
"The role of chief operating officer is vital for CQC as we continue to improve our efficiency and effectiveness while ensuring we remain focused on improving people’s experience of health and social care services in England.
"Working with my executive team, Kirsty will establish and deliver the organisation’s strategic priorities and take decisions on matters relating to the efficiency, development, performance and maturity of the organisation.
"I am very pleased to welcome her to CQC."
Ms Shaw says: "I am delighted to take on the role of chief operating officer at CQC.
"I look forward to working with colleagues at CQC to act as a catalyst for improvement within the organisation and to ensure the needs of people who use services are reflected across its internal processes."
Kirsty will take up her post at the Care Quality Commission on 1 March.
