Dame Josephine Williams (born 8 July 1948) is a British administrator and social worker who was the chief executive of Mencap until 1 November 2008. She chaired the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care providers in England. It ...

between 2010 and 2012.

Career

Jo Dillon was born in Fishpool,

Bury, Lancashire Bury (, ) is a market town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. which had a population of 81,101 in 2021 while the wider borough had a population of 193,846. The town was originally part of the ...

. She studied Sociology and Social Studies at

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

. She changed her name to Williams (the name of her partner) whilst working as principal officer for Cheshire Social Services Department in the 1980s. She progressed in seniority to become second in command before being promoted to Director of Social Services in Wigan. She later returned to Cheshire as Director of Social Services. She was appointed as chief executive of Mencap in 2005 and remained in post until 2008. Williams was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in the 2007

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

for "services to people with learning disabilities". An article in ''The Independent'' accused Williams of using her authority as head of the CQC to carry out a campaign to smear fellow board member and

whistle-blower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

Kay Sheldon, including commissioning a taxpayer funded psychiatric evaluation of Sheldon. On 7 September 2012, Dame Jo Williams announced her resignation as Chair of CQC. The CQC chair was forced to apologise to MPs after she reiterated her allegations about Sheldon before a

Health Select Committee The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administ ...

reviewing CQC accountability. In May 2014 it was announced that Williams had been appointed as Independent Chair of the East Cheshire Caring Together Executive Board. However, the move was criticised by local councillors at the

Cheshire East Council Cheshire East Council is the local authority for Cheshire East, a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs th ...

meeting on 14 May after they learned that the council's Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee had not been notified of the appointment. On 15 May, Caring Together announced that Dame Williams and the Caring Together Executive Board had jointly decided that she would not be taking up the role. Williams became Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council at Keele University in 2018. She was appointed Chair of the

Alder Hey Children's Hospital Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a children's hospital and NHS foundation trust in West Derby, Liverpool, England. It is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one of several specialist hospitals within the Liverpool ...

Trust Board in February 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jo 1948 births Living people Alumni of Keele University British social welfare officials Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Deputy lieutenants of Cheshire English social workers People from Bury, Greater Manchester People from Nottinghamshire