UK education chief Chris Wormald to head up health department

By on 15/01/2016 | Updated on 25/09/2020

Chris Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Education (DfE), will succeed Dame Una O’Brien in her role of Department of Health perm sec, it has been announced today.

O’Brien announced late last year that she is leaving the civil service in April.

Wormald, who will take over the job later this year, said: “After four years at DfE, it will be a privilege and an honour to join the Department of Health. I’m very excited by the opportunity to work on the many important challenges the department deals with.

“I’m looking forward to working with the ministerial team, the staff of the department and its many partners as we implement the government’s ambitious agenda over the course of the Parliament.”

Sir Jeremy Heywood, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, said that Wormald “will bring a wealth of leadership, implementation and policy experience to the role at the Department of Health and a great understanding of public services” and thanked O’Brien “for her enormous contribution to the civil service over the past 25 years.”

Wormald was appointed perm sec for the DfE in March 2012. His previous posts include director-general in the deputy prime minister’s office at the Cabinet Office; head of the economic and domestic secretariat at the Cabinet Office; and director-general for local government and regeneration at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

About Winnie Agbonlahor

Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.

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