No, you are right. Words matter with this stuff. I should have said accountable. It’s exactly the same in finance with an Accountable Executive. However, a pandemic crisis the like of which we haven’t seen in 100 years is not a poor quality sandwich or unattended bed pan (serious though that is). There is a scale of the risk surrounding pandemic which should make it pretty high on the SOS agenda from day one of his tenure. So Hancock is the accountable executive in this case.
Any mistakes made by him or his supporting infrastructure previously should wait for the public enquiry. For now, he is accountable for the plan to get us out of this which I sincerely hope he can present soon.
I said that I would come back to this - and that for me it should mean we have clarity and understanding of where accountability and responsibility previously resided and resides currently and into the future. I mentioned that it splits into a number of areas......
1. As you say, now that the 'Executive' has 'stepped in' and are directly managing events "
......For now, he is accountable for the plan to get us out of this which I sincerely hope he can present soon."
Absolutely - and direct management responsibility should continue until the situation - via the achievement of pre-determined criteria - is deemed to be under an appropriate level of control and thereby demonstrating that management responsibility can then be transferred back to PHE, DHSC and the NHS.
Essentially - in contractual jargon - having exercised Step-in rights - that would be the Executive managing 'Step-out’.
2. It also means that, in the period until the Executive stepped-in, the responsibility for planning, preparation and management of all aspects of a potential pandemic (or any other health sector crisis) is/always was clearly with PHE, DHSC and the NHS.
This included clearly – amongst many other responsibilities - any aspects of Procurement - via NHS Procurement, e.g. of PPE and any instructions to Care Homes on their planning and preparations, e.g. PPE stocks - via NHS Commissioning functions.
There has been a lot of confused misplacing of blame in these regards.
3. As I mentioned - this explains the difference between 'Accountability' and 'Responsibility for planning and provision'. The Executive - e.g. the SoS and PM, will always be accountable for all areas of Public Services - but the responsibility for planning and delivery resides with the appropriate departments.
So, yes Hancock became the Accountable Officer in December and, like Hunt before him and all their predecessors, whether Conservative or Labour, will have been briefed by PHE and the NHS CEO on the status of the priority areas. As part of this, in relation to the potential for a pandemic, PHE will have briefed on their responsibilities for planning and preparation and Simon Stevens would have briefed on areas of capacity and procurements.
Unless there emerges any evidence that those briefings included escalations for Executive support that were denied - then the SoS will have quite rightly, after asking challenging questions, taken confidence that PHE, DHSC and the NHS Board were fulfilling their responsibilities.