Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the application process is for the role of Chair of a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.

Sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) leaders are locally appointed to ensure that they have the full confidence of the local health system. The recruitment of STP leaders is initially sought from among the leadership of the local partner organisations. Leaders come from a mix of backgrounds, and include provider chief executives, clinical commissioning groups accountable officers, local authority senior leaders and clinicians, recognising the need for local systems to work in partnership.

Where no local candidate can take on this additional responsibility, external candidates are considered who have sufficient skills and expertise to lead a complex health and social care transformation programme.

Each STP chair is agreed by NHS England and NHS Improvement.