Dr Minh Alexander retired consultant psychiatrist 7 June 2023
NHS England has purchased services from a private company, the Good Governance Institute, despite the fact that the Institute hired former NHS director Mason Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was sacked after false qualification claims, including on his LinkedIn entry:
NHS boss Mason Fitzgerald sacked over false qualification claim
NHS England has failed to respond to concerns since last autumn and initially ignored a complaint about this. It also ignored a related FOI request until it recently received a direction from the ICO to respond.
It now refuses to confirm or deny that it has employed Mason Fitzgerald since his sacking by East London NHS Foundation Trust.
Curiously, NHS England admitted that the Good Governance Institute carried out pro bono research for it this year on “systems”. This sounds as if it could be the work on ICS governance that the GGI and Mason Fitzgerald were possibly involved with, as suggested by GGI material in the public domain.
I have asked for further information about this pro bono research and for an internal review of NHS England’s refusal to answer on whether it has employed Mason Fitzgerald since his sacking.
I have also pointed out recent evidence that the GGI’s normalisation of his behaviour and his dismissal by the NHS is leading to his re-entry into the NHS.
The FOI response and further correspondence to NHS England is provided below.
From: REDACTED
Subject: Sensitive NHS England’s relationship with the “Good Governance Institute” and possible employment of sacked former NHS director Mason Fitzgerald
Date: 7 June 2023 at 07:14:11 BST
To: REDACTED
Cc: REDACTED
BY EMAIL
Amanda Pritchard
Chief Executive
NHS England
7 June 2023
Dear Amanda,
NHS England’s relationship with the “Good Governance Institute” and possible employment of sacked former NHS director Mason Fitzgerald
I have finally received NHS England’s response to my FOI request about whether or not NHS England employed Mason Fitzgerald after he was sacked by East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) in 2021, following concerns about false claims about a legal qualification which appeared in several documents and on his LinkedIn entry.
NHS boss Mason Fitzgerald sacked over false qualification claim
As you may recall, I was concerned that the so called “Good Governance Institute”, a private company with many links to the NHS and which lists many former and current senior NHS managers amongst its “people”, had hired Mr Fitzgerald as a senior consultant despite his sacking by the NHS. It has since promoted him to Director of Consultancy.
I became even more concerned when I saw that Ruth May NHSE England Chief Nursing Officer had engaged the Good Governance Institute late last year. I became even more concerned when I saw material by the GGI which raised questions about whether the GGI was working with NHS England on ICS governance and that Mr Fitzgerald taking part in this work.
Hence I raised concerns with Ruth and then with you about whether NHS England should have links with the GGI and whether NHS England was employing Mr Fitzgerald to work on of all things, ICS governance.
NHS England has stonewalled. The response to my eventual FOI enquiry, made in the absence of any response from you or Ruth, only came after direction by the ICO to NHS England to respond. The FOI reply is forwarded below.
NHS England has now refused to confirm or deny whether it has employed Mason Fitzgerald on grounds that this is non-disclosable personal information. It considers my request for this information “intrusive”.
But it has confirmed that it did indeed purchase services from the GGI AFTER Mr Fitzgerald was sacked by the NHS, including a purchase by Ruth May’s directorate in autumn 2022, by which time Mr Fitzgerald was working for the GGI.
Curiously, NHS England states that it received an offer of pro bono work from the GGI this year: “an offer of pro bono work with a nominal payment of £100”.
This work was vaguely described as: “consultancy services for conducting research with systems to inform the development of set of principles regarding system risk management”
1) As a fresh FOI request, I would be grateful if NHS England
– could confirm whether this research by the GGI related to ICS governance
– could disclose all documents relating to the offer and acceptance of this “pro bono” consultancy work
– could disclose whether the former CEO of ELFT who is now an NHSE director was involved in setting up this “pro bono” arrangement
– could disclose what access to NHS systems was given to the GGI in order to undertake this research, including any financial data
– could disclose the research report(s) produced as a result of this “pro bono” consultancy work
– With respect to NHSE’s advice that “We are able to generally advise that NHS England scrutinises the suppliers financial standing and capability to deliver the required services and can withhold contracts from organisations where directors have been convicted of fraud or similar offences but that power does not extend to the investigation of employees of the organisation”, please disclose the policy document(s) which sets out what due diligence NHSE should undertake regarding contractors’ governance and the circumstances in which contracts may be refused.
2) I would also be grateful if NHS England could internally review its assertion that information about whether it employed Mason Fitzgerald is personal data, that is not disclosable.
Mr Fitzgerald was a senior NHS director who was appointed as an NHS trust Chief Executive but did not take up the position at the last minute, causing a scandal and serious reputational harm and disruption to two NHS trusts because of the false claims about his qualifications.
The reasons for his eventual dismissal by East London NHS Foundation Trust have a serious impact on public trust in the NHS.
It is of great public interest whether NHS England as the body which oversees the rest of the NHS and is a regulator of NHS trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts, takes issues of probity seriously and does not employ those who have been dismissed following acts of dishonesty. It is a matter of basic Safeguarding that senior individuals whose actions impact on many, many lives should be trustworthy.
Moreover, it is important that NHS England as the body charged with implementing the Kark review recommendations on preventing unfit NHS managers from recirculating in the NHS is seen to model good practice, to live by the principles set out by the Kark review and not to actively undermine the goals of the Kark review.
NHS England maintains that it cannot investigate contractors’ employees. But the NHS has already investigated and sacked Mr Fitzgerald.
It is therefore essential that NHS England accounts for whether it has employed Mr Fitzgerald following his sacking by East London NHS Foundation Trust, and if it has done so, to explain how it will move on from this.
I should point out that the GGI’s normalisation of Mr Fitzgerald’s behaviour and dismissal is leading to his re-entry to the NHS in other contexts. According to a tweet by the Head of Risk Management of Nottingham University Hospitals, where maternity deaths are currently being investigated by Donna Ockenden, M Fitzgerald was due to speak there last month as a GGI representative, on “risk appetite”.
If NHS England is also seen to normalise the situation, and fails to account in full regarding its relationship with the GGI or to answer questions about whether it has employed Mason Fitzgerald after his sacking, this effect would be greatly amplified.
With best wishes,
Minh
Dr Minh Alexander
Cc Tom Kark KC
BBC Newsnight
Health and Social Care Committee
Steve Barclay Secretary of State
From: REDACTED
Subject: Freedom of Information Request (Our Ref: FOI-2305-1971470) NHSE:0176254
Date: 6 June 2023 at 15:10:01 BST
To: REDACTED
Freedom of Information Request (Our Ref: FOI-2305-1971470)
Dear Minh Alexander,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 15 March 2023. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding.
Your request
You requested the following information [numbering inserted by NHS England]:
“As an FOI request,
- please disclose if since July 2021 when Mason Fitzgerald was sacked by East London NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England has purchased Mason Fitzgerald’s services in any capacity, whether directly or via another party such as the Good Governance Institute.
Please disclose
- the number of occasions on which his services were purchased,
- the total number of days work purchased,
- the type of services purchased and
- the total amount spent.
- As part of this, please clarify if Mason Fitzgerald did indeed work on ICS governance, and if he did, on which ICS did he work.
- Please also disclose
- which NHSE senior managers signed off these expenses, and
- under which NHSE directorate these expenses fell.
- Please also disclose the total amount that NHS England has spent on the Good Governance Institute’s services since July 2021, irrespective of which directorate purchased these services.”
Decision
In respect of questions 1 and 2, NHS England is neither confirming nor denying whether the requested information is held.
In respect of question 3, NHS England holds some information in scope of your request and has disclosed all of the information that it holds.
Questions 1 and 2
Please note, from the information that NHS England would routinely hold or collect, we would be unable to breakdown this information as per parts 1(b), 1(c) and 1(e) of your request. Therefore for those parts, we confirm NHS England does not hold the information being requested.
In relation to the other parts under questions 1 and 2, NHS England neither confirms nor denies whether it holds the requested information and considers section 40(5)(b)(i) is engaged.
To determine whether section 40(5) applies, NHS England needs to demonstrate:
- that confirming or denying whether the requested information is held would constitute the disclosure of a third party’s personal data; and
- that providing this confirmation or denial would contravene one of the data protection principles.
Section 3(2) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) defines personal data as: “any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual”.
In response to part a), whether NHS England has contracted or employed services from a specific individual, or did not employ a specific individual, meets the definition of personal data under the DPA. We consider that if we were to either confirm or deny we hold this information, this would in itself disclose personal data.
NHS England are required to be consistent when considering the application of section 40(5) when processing FOI requests. Therefore, it is important to apply this exemption on a consistent basis when considering requests for information under the FOI Act. The application of this exemption should not be taken as an indication as to whether the information is held or not.
In response to part b),NHS England can only confirm whether or not it holds the requested information if to do so would be lawful (i.e. it would meet one of the condition of lawful processing listed in Article 6(1) GDPR), be fair and be transparent.
The most applicable would be Article 6(1)(f) which provides that “processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject…”
Disclosure under FOI Act is considered to be a disclosure to the world at large, and not just to the individual applicant. Confirming or denying whether this information is held would, in our view, be unfairly disclosing information that is an individual’s personal data.
Prior to services being contracted, NHS England would scrutinise suppliers’ financial standing and capability to deliver the required services and can withhold contracts from organisations where directors have been convicted of fraud or similar offences. Therefore, we consider there are other ways in which the legitimate aim in question for this FOI can be satisfied and there are less intrusive ways of meeting this legitimate aim. We therefore consider, it would be unfair in this particular instance to disclose an individual’s personal data and we do not have a lawful basis for processing this personal data (i.e. disclosing it under the FOI Act).
Question 3
Since July 2021, NHS England can confirm that it has contracted services from the Good Governance Institute on three occasions:
- Between July and October 2021, a contract was signed by Health Education England for £47,982 for consultancy services for a review of executive governance to support the Accountable Officer.
- Between October and December 2022, NHS England paid £74,650 for consultancy services for an engagement exercise to support the development of the next CNO for England Professional Strategy for nursing and midwifery.
- In February 2023, NHS England paid £100 for consultancy services for conducting research with systems to inform the development of set of principles regarding system risk management.
Each of these contracts were contracted through specifying the service required rather than the number of days worked. Therefore, even if a certain individual had worked on behalf of this organisation whilst the contract was in place, NHS England would be unable to breakdown the information we hold as per parts 1(b), 1(c) and 1(e) of your request.
Contract A was arranged when Health Education England (HEE) was a separate organisation to NHS England. In accordance with the former HEE’s Standing Financial Instructions, this was approved by the budget holder, Director of Corporate Accountability and Engagement (the directorate it fell within) and the Director of Finance.
Contract B was approved by NHS England’s Nursing directorate and was approved by the budget holder, finance account manager for the budget it was raised from, and NHS England’s Commercial Panel in accordance with our Standing Financial Instructions. The Commercial Panel includes representation from the Commercial, Financial and Legal teams. In addition, due to the value and type (consultancy services) these procurements were referred to, and approved by, the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) Procurement team.
The procurement was below the PCR (2015) threshold and as such subject to the light touch procurement process. This does not require the use of the Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) mandated under PPN 8/16 for above threshold work.
We are able to generally advise that NHS England scrutinises the suppliers financial standing and capability to deliver the required services and can withhold contracts from organisations where directors have been convicted of fraud or similar offences but that power does not extend to the investigation of employees of the organisation.
Contract C was approved by NHS England’s directorate for the Chief Delivery Officer and was approved by the budget holder and constituted an offer of pro bono work with a nominal payment of £100.
The total amount that NHS England has spent on the Good Governance Institute since July 2021 is £122,732 (contracts detailed above).
Copyright
NHS England operates under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL). Terms and conditions can be found on the following link:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/terms-and-conditions/
Review Rights
We hope this information is helpful. However, if you are dissatisfied, you have the right to ask for an internal review. This should be requested in writing within two months of the date of this letter. Your correspondence should be labelled “Internal Review” and should outline your concerns and/or the area(s) you would like the review to consider. Internal Review requests should be sent to:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
Please quote the reference number FOI-2305-1971470in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can be contacted at the following weblink:
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
Please note there is no charge for making an appeal.
Please do not reply to this email. This message has been sent from a central mailbox. To communicate with NHS England regarding Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, enquiries or complaints we ask these are sent directly to NHS England’s customer contact centre. This is to ensure all communications are progressed correctly. Their postal address, telephone number and email details are as follows: PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT; 0300 3 11 22 33, england.contactus@nhs.net.
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information
NHS England
Alexander's Excavations 