Boris office chief made DHSC director
Former senior Downing Street official Samantha Jones is to become a non-executive director at the Department of Health and Social Care, HSJ has learned.
The ex-hospital chief executive left Number 10 in the summer and then worked out her notice advising health secretary Steve Barclay until the end of the year.
Ms Jones was appointed to head up Boris Johnson’s new Office of the Prime Minister in February 2022 as he sought to steady the ship after the Partygate scandal. She had previously been the prime minister’s senior adviser on social care and NHS reform.
The Office of the Prime Minister was abolished as part of Liz Truss’s short-lived Downing Street shake-up.
Before entering government Ms Jones worked for Operose Health, the UK arm of US health giant Centene, NHS England and as acute trust CEO. She replaces former Leeds Teaching Hospitals chief executive Sir Julian Hartey, who stood down as a DHSC NED when he became CEO of NHS Providers.
DHSC non-executive directors do not have a direct role in running government departments but are expected to provide “external advice and expertise”. They receive £15,000 a year for three days’ work a month, according to a DHSC job advert posted late last year that said it was seeking to appoint four new non-execs.
The DHSC declined to comment.