DHSC DG working on Covid-19 response to head up social-change charity

Paul Kissack to leave for Joseph Rowntree Foundation by September


Photo: Howard Lake/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

One of the director general leading the Department for Health and Social Care's efforts to tackle the coronavirus crisis is to leave to become chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Paul Kissack, the former DG of strategy and change at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who has been seconded to DHSC's coronavirus response since April, will take up his role at the social change charity within the next three months.

The career civil servant, who has also worked in the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education, will also head up JRF's housing association.


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He has also spent stints as a senior official at a local authority and for New Zealand's Ministry for Children.

He succeeds Campbell Robb, who left the charity to become chief executive of social justice charity Nacro last summer.

Kissack's experience "delivering complex services locally and policy development at the heart of government makes him the right person" to oversee an ongoing of period of transformation at the charity, chair of trustees Will Haire said.

The outgoing DG said: “Joseph Rowntree’s vision of a prosperous country free of poverty has never felt more relevant or urgent. As we emerge from the Covid crisis it is vital that we redouble our efforts to address stark social and regional inequalities."

Kissack is expected to take up the new role "by September", JRF said.

CSW has approached DHSC for comment.

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