Milewood has appointed former Care Quality Commission Deputy Chief Inspector Sue Howard as an independent Board advisor to further strengthen its approach to quality and governance.
Sue brings decades of experience in adult social care, including seven years as Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Her appointment forms part of Milewood’s wider focus on ensuring robust oversight, accountability and continuous improvement across its services.
In the new advisory role, she will work independently with Milewood’s Board and leadership team, providing expert insight and challenge, with a particular focus on the organisation’s quality and governance systems and its continued commitment to delivering high-quality support. She will also assume the chairmanship of the groups quality, risk and governance group.
Sue has spent almost her entire working life in adult social care, beginning her career as a night care worker in a home for older people while her daughter was young.
She went on to work in services supporting adults with learning disabilities and became a registered manager of both residential and domiciliary services before joining the regulator as an inspector in 2002.
After achieving a postgraduate diploma in Managing Health and Social Care in 2010 and progressing through a series of senior roles, Sue became Deputy Chief Inspector for Adult Social Care.
During seven years in the role, she was a senior leader within CQC, directly accountable to the Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and responsible for leading and managing adult social care inspection, regulation and enforcement across the Central and North regions.
Sue also played a significant national role during the Covid-19 pandemic. From 2020, she held senior leadership responsibility within CQC’s Adult Social Care directorate for national inspection operations, helping to develop and lead a flexible regulatory response to the unprecedented challenges facing care services.
She retired from her full-time CQC career in March 2022 but has continued to work across adult social care and regulation.
Her subsequent roles have included acting as an independent advisor to the CQC chief executive, serving as a Board member for a domestic and sexual abuse charity and as Independent Chair of a Safeguarding Adults Board.
Sue Howard said: “I have spent virtually all of my working life in adult social care and remain passionate about ensuring that people are at the centre of decisions about the services and support they receive.
“Good quality and governance should ultimately be about the difference they make to people’s lives. I am looking forward to working independently with Milewood’s Board, bringing my experience of frontline care, management and regulation to provide constructive challenge and support.
“I have always believed in working collaboratively with people who use services and those who support them, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to Milewood’s continued development.”
Martyn Heginbotham, chief executive of Milewood, said: “Sue brings an exceptional breadth of experience to Milewood, from working directly in care services and managing provision through to holding one of the most senior adult social care regulatory roles in the country.
“Having someone of Sue’s calibre providing independent advice and challenge to our Board and leadership team is an important part of our commitment to continually strengthening quality and governance across Milewood.
“We want to make sure we are constantly asking ourselves the right questions, learning and improving. Sue’s knowledge, independence and understanding of what good care looks like from both a provider and regulatory perspective will be enormously valuable.”
