Mike Farrar

CBE 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 ...

(born in 1960) was Chief Executive of the

NHS Confederation The NHS Confederation, formerly the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts, is a membership body for organisations that commission and provide National Health Service services founded in 1990. The predecessor organisation was calle ...

from 2011 until October 2013.

Early career

Prior to working for the NHS, he worked for Grand Metropolitan UK Ltd and pursued early aspirations to play professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, playing semi-professionally for Rochdale Football Club and as a fast bowler for

Littleborough Cricket Club Littleborough Cricket Club, based in Littleborough, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is an English cricket team currently playing in the Central Lancashire League. The club was founded in 1839 and it played on the ...

. He was appointed to the board of

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

in April 2005 and acted as the interim chair from December 2007 following the resignation of Derek Mapp. He stepped down from the chair in March 2009 with the appointment of

Richard Lewis Richard, Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky or Dick Lewis may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Richard Field Lewis Jr. (1907–1957), American radio network owner * Dick "Rocko" Lewis (Richard Henry Lewis III, 1908–1966), American entertainer ...

but remained a member of the board.

NHS career

Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Mike Farrar was a senior manager within the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

(NHS) of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and previous Senior

Civil Servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. His roles have included; Chief Executive of

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

and South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authorities, Chief Executive of

Tees Valley Tees Valley is a combined authority area in North East England, around the lower River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley. The combined authority covers five council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland ...

Health Authority and Head of

Primary Care Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...

at the

Department of Health (United Kingdom) The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care mat ...

. During his time at the Department of Health, he was responsible for establishing Primary Care Groups, Primary Care Trusts and PMS. In addition he chaired the

GP Contract negotiating team that successfully negotiated the new General Medical Service contract and is the National Programme Director of NHS Live. Farrar's first position with the NHS was as a gardener at

Rochdale Infirmary Rochdale Infirmary is an acute general hospital in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. It is managed by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. History The infirmary was established as the Rochdale Infirmary and Dispensary by Clement ...

between 1977 and 1979. In 1982 he joined Rochdale Health Authority as a health promotion officer and then went on to set up an alcohol and drug service for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. Further positions included chief executive of Tees Health Authority, head of

primary care Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...

at the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...

and chief executive at South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority and West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority. On 1 July 2006, he became Chief Executive of

NHS North West NHS North West was a strategic health authority (SHA) of the National Health Service in England. It operated in the North West region, which is coterminous with the local government office region. When created in 2006 it had regional oversight ...

, the new

strategic health authority Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for managing performance, enacting directives and implementing health policy as required by the ...

for

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, as part of the new centralised SHA structure. He left this post for the NHS Confederation in October 2011, as NHS North West became one of three SHAs to be merged to form the NHS North of England SHA Cluster from May 2006 to April 2011. From 2002 to 2009 he was the Chair of the Strategic Health Authority Chief Executives Group. In addition, he is a member of the National Migration Impact Forum, which is a Ministerial sounding Board for immigration policy (including the new points based migration system) Mike Farrar has now resigned from the NHS altogether, and started a consulting business, Mike Farrar Consulting Lmt. He now works closely with

Alan Milburn Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 1992 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he served for five years in the Cabinet, first as Chief Secretary to the Treasury f ...

. He has also taken the role of chair of Swim England, he is a trustee of the EFL Trust, Chair of Rugby League Players Welfare Forum and Chair of Hudds Town/Hudds Giants Community Sports Trust as well as former National Tsar for Sport and Health, carrying on his sport interests. In February 2025 it was announced that he will take up the role of interim Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Department of Health in April 2025 following the retirement of Peter May. He is an

Honorary Fellow Honorary titles (professor, president, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as ...

of the

Royal College of General Practitioners The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional body for general (medical) practitioners (GPs/ Family Physicians/ Primary Care Physicians) in the United Kingdom. The RCGP represents and supports GPs on key issues including ...

, the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

and of the

University of Central Lancashire The University of Lancashire (previously abbreviated UCLan) is a public university based in the city of Preston, Lancashire, England. It has its roots in ''The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge'', founded in 1828. Previously k ...

References

External links

NHS Confederation websiteNHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farrar, Mike Living people Administrators in the National Health Service Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English healthcare chief executives 1960 births