Join CQC’s team to help improve mental health care and tackle inequalities

Chief Inspector of Mental Health, Dr Arun Chopra, discusses an exciting opportunity to become Director of Mental Health at CQC, and updates on some other interesting areas of work.

The care and treatment of people with mental illness — and support for their carers — is one of the most pressing areas of health and social care. As CQC’s first Chief Inspector of Mental Health, I’ve seen how our teams have been making strong progress on several fronts to use our regulatory powers and oversight of the Mental Health Act as levers to protect patients and support services to improve.

To help us do this, we are currently recruiting for another Director of Mental Health at CQC.

This is an important new role in our Mental Health team, and the post-holder will be part of our leadership team. They will work closely with the other Director of Mental Health to shape our approach to the regulation of independent mental health care and our approach to how we assess care in high-secure hospitals. This is about leading teams who provide safeguards to patients who are subject to the Mental Health Act. Our mental health team works closely with colleagues in our policy team to shape our approach to thematic work, which builds on the evidence that our mental health inspectors and mental health act reviewers gather from their day-to-day work with providers, patients and carers.

The closing date for applications the Director of Mental Health is 24 September. We also have on-going recruitment to other roles within our mental health teams.

I want to share an update on some of the important work already underway, and how this connects with our wider ambitions to improve outcomes for people who use mental health services. We hope this might provide an insight into the work of our teams and our values.

Addressing inequalities in mental health

We know that there are inequalities in the way services are delivered for people with mental illness, and that these continue to affect our communities. This includes a wide range of social inequalities. For example, we are looking at how providers can improve how they meet the needs of diverse communities by focusing not just on the quality of treatment, but also on how people access services, cultural awareness, and the experiences of people whose voices often go unheard.

We are reviewing the implementation of the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) in mental health providers. Next month, we will publish guidance internally for our Mental Health Act reviewers and inspectors, so they can use this when reviewing how services are implementing the PCREF.

To develop our understanding of how Black men experience mental health care, we commissioned Queen Mary University (QMU) and University College London (UCL) to carry out a rapid review of what ‘good’ looks like in relation to access, experience and outcomes for Black men. Findings from this work will be published as a part of our State of Care report in October.

Our 2024 survey of people who use NHS community mental health services has shown that people have received some good support and advice around their medicines, but at the same time, the survey highlighted a lack of personalised care planning. People also reported experiences where there was a lack of support for themselves, their family or carers while they were in crisis, and having long waits for treatment.

Preparing for the Mental Health Bill

We have been engaging with stakeholders on the implications of the forthcoming Mental Health Bill. This legislation has the potential to bring significant change for patients, and CQC has a key role in strengthening safeguards for those who do not or cannot consent to medication, and in the roll-out of safeguards to support the voice of patients subject to compulsion. It is important that we are ready to support services to adapt to the changes, while making sure that the rights and experiences of people who use services remain at the centre.

Rebuilding our approach to inspections

As we evolve our inspection activity in mental health, we are paying attention to community mental health teams following the rapid review of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust we carried out in 2024. We have since started a comprehensive programme of inspections of community mental health services for working age adults and crisis services. These services often form the backbone of support for people living with mental health conditions. It is vital that we understand where care is working well and where it can improve. By listening to patients, families, and frontline staff, we’re shaping an approach that reflects the realities of care delivery on the ground. Since March 2025, we have visited a number of trusts and have completed assessments of their community services and their crisis services.

Our inspection activity in hospitals is also a focus, as we are engaging closely with providers and listening to their insights. This feedback is vital as we continue to shape and optimise how we assess the well-led key question. We will be working with providers and other stakeholders to define more clearly what good looks like in the inspection process. Working together, we can build a shared understanding of excellence in leadership and governance, while also strengthening our specialist knowledge in this sector.

Strengthening our assessment framework

Alongside this, we are continuing to develop our new assessment framework and will be engaging throughout the autumn on proposed changes. This will strengthen our ability to regulate and support improvement in health and care. It will also help us to take a more consistent approach across sectors. By aligning our work with the ambitions of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England, we can continue to develop integration and collaboration between services and local systems, and sustained improvements that benefit people and communities.

Our public consultation this autumn will gather feedback on our proposals to evolve and improve our approach to assessing health and care providers, how we make judgements and how we keep judgements up to date.

Join us in this work — career opportunities

Delivering this agenda takes dedicated people with a wide range of skills and experiences. We are continuing to grow our teams, and there are opportunities to join us in shaping the future of regulation and improvement in mental health and beyond. If you are passionate about making a difference and want to work alongside colleagues who share that commitment, we would love to hear from you. Effective regulation requires regulatory expertise, sector expertise and relational skills to enable conversations that drive improvements in services.

We currently have roles for specialist advisors, expert reviewers, second opinion appointed doctors, and we are currently recruiting for another Director of Mental Health.