The Health and Social Care Committee’s Expert Panel

Meet the core members of the Panel and learn about their role in holding the Government to account.

By MPs on the Health and Social Care Select Committee

Published on 6 August 2021, updated on 12 October 2022.

The Government and Ministers set out their commitments in various ways but what happens to these after they are made and who makes sure they are kept?

This is a key part of the scrutiny work carried out by parliamentary select committees – most commonly through holding inquiries into important policy areas.

We have taken a new step and have established and commissioned an Expert Panel to support this vital scrutiny work .

This Panel is made up of:

Core members — healthcare policy experts or professionals with knowledge of the key issues affecting patients.
Additional members with specific expertise on the topic the Panel is evaluating.

The Chair of the Panel is Professor Dame Jane Dacre.

How does the Panel work?

In our Special Report (published in August 2020) we set out how the Panel will work and decided that the Panel’s first area of evaluation would be maternity services in England.

Here’s a brief summary of the process:

Step 1: Asking the Government on its commitments

We will write to the Government and its associated bodies to set out what its key commitments are in the specific area we have commissioned the Panel to look at. We will, in discussion with the Panel, decide on which commitments to evaluate.

Step 2: An independent evaluation of Government's progress

We will then commission the Panel to conduct a detailed evaluation, independent of us, on the progress made against those commitments, using the following questions:  

Was the commitment met or is it on track to be met?  
Was the commitment  effectively funded?  
Did the commitment achieve a positive impact for patients?  
Was the commitment appropriate?

What tools will the Panel use?

The Panel’s evaluation process will draw on the combined expertise of the members of the Panel, as well as using methods such as:

Interviewing key healthcare stakeholders
Financial analysis to explore if commitments have been effectively funded
Analysing public data
Putting out a call for written evidence and using key word analysis

Step 3: The Committee's action

The Panel will then submit their independent evaluation to us and we will consider the findings as part of our own work into the chosen policy area. The Panel’s final report will include a comprehensive ‘scorecard’ rating similar to the CQC rating (Outstanding, Good,  Requires Improvement , Inadequate) which measures the progress the Government has made against its commitments. The process will provide us with a comprehensive and independent analysis of Government progress into the chosen policy area which will strengthen our evidence base and support us to hold the Government to account for its actions.

Meet the Panel members

In August 2020 we appointed Professor Dame Jane Dacre as Chair of the Panel. Jane is Professor of Medical Education at University College London, a consultant physician and rheumatologist, and a former President of the Royal College of Physicians.

Further core members were later appointed to join Dame Jane in overseeing the work of the Expert Panel across several topic areas.

They are:

Professor Anita Charlesworth
Sir Robert Francis QC
Professor Stephen Peckham
Professor Emma Cave
Sir David Pearson

Sir Robert Francis KC is the former Chair of Healthwatch England and a patient safety expert who chaired the investigation into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust .

Sir Robert Francis will not be taking part in the work on the patient safety evaluation due to his involvement in some of the public reviews and inquiries which the Expert Panel will be looking at.

"I am delighted to be asked to help the Committee in this important work and to be enabled to help bring to the table the perspective of those who are using or may need health and social care services."
Sir Robert Francis KC

Anita Charlesworth is Director of Research at the Health Foundation and an honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham.

‘It is a privilege to be able to support the health and social care committee in its vital work. It is an unprecedent moment in the history of the UK’s health and care so there has never been a more critical time to hold key decision makers to account.’
Anita Charlesworth

Professor Stephen Peckham is Director of the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent, and Professor of Health Policy at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"Being part of the Panel is an opportunity to support independent scrutiny of policy by holding government to account and helping to improve future health and social care policy."
Professor Stephen Peckham

Sir David Pearson, Independent Chair and Advisor (Care and Health)

“I am very happy to be joining the Expert Panel as we support the work of the Committee in scrutinising health and social care policy and delivery in this country. We live in times of extraordinary challenge and opportunity. The work of the Committee is crucial in contributing to the development and wellbeing of social care and health for the people of this country."
Sir David Pearson

Emma Cave is Professor of Healthcare Law at Durham University

“I am honoured to support the Committee in scrutinising progress on Government health and social care commitments. A failure to deliver on promises damages credibility and trust and compromises the ability of service providers to meet the needs of the public and service users.”
Professor Emma Cave