As PM hires his first ‘Chief Operating Officer’...
A FORMER NHS nurse was drafted into Downing Street last night to become the most senior civil servant at No 10.
Experienced health executive Samantha Jones was appointed Downing Street’s first Chief Operating Officer as part of Boris Johnson’s team revamp.
She will also take on the role of interim permanent secretary. But it is understood she will be in the job for just six months until someone is found to fill it longer-term.
Miss Jones, 50, a married mother of twins, has a wealth of experience with both the NHS and private health firms. She qualified as a nurse in 1989 and started her career at the world-famous Great Ormond Street Hospital for children in London.
But she soon moved into health management, becoming the chief executive of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust in south
‘I promised to make changes to my team’
London and of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Miss Jones also had a twoyear stint as a director of care strategies at NHS England.
She has worked in the private sector as well, most recently as the chief executive of Operose Health. The firm, which is the UK arm of American health insurance giant Centene, last year bought out AT Medics, a large group of GP practices in London.
In April Miss Jones was appointed the Prime Minister’s top adviser on NHS transformation and social care. Announcing her appointment last night, Mr Johnson said: ‘I promised to make changes to my senior team so that we can get on with better delivering for the British people. That is what we are now doing by bringing in the very best skills and management experience with a clear vision to unite and level up our country.’
Miss Jones added: ‘I look forward to establishing an Office for the Prime Minister that provides him with the professional operation to deliver his agenda.’
Reporting to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, her role will be to examine the way No10 is run and help to set up a new Office of the Prime Minister. Mr Case said: ‘Samantha’s experience of leading and managing transformation in the public and private sectors will be invaluable as we overhaul the structures which support the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
She joins Mr Johnson’s chief of staff Steve Barclay, communications chief Guto Harri and head of policy Andrew Griffith to create the new Office of the Prime Minister, announced by Mr Johnson last week in response to the Sue Gray report into lockdown parties.
Addressing the Commons afterwards, Mr Johnson said: ‘It is time to sort out what Sue Gray rightly calls the “fragmented and complicated” leadership structures of Downing Street.’
It comes after Dan Rosenfield, the PM’s former chief of staff, and Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary, resigned last week.