HC-One
Marketing Director
Voyage Care
The Client
The Position
Chair, Quality, Safety & Risk
Introduction
Voyage Care is one of the UK’s leading specialist care providers, supporting over 3,500 individuals with learning disabilities, autism, brain injuries, and complex needs across a nationwide network of services. The organisation is committed to delivering outstanding, person-centred care, underpinned by a strong governance culture and a relentless focus on quality and safety.
01
The context
As Voyage Care continued to grow and strengthen its governance framework, securing the right leadership for the QSR Committee was a strategic priority. The brief called for a highly credible, independently-minded Chair who could bring deep quality and safety expertise alongside the standing to shape the Board’s approach to service excellence and risk management.
Voyage Care sought a candidate with a ‘best we can be’ mindset. Someone who could provide expert scrutiny of quality and safety data, challenge the organisation constructively, and set an uncompromising standard for care governance. The brief was open to candidates from adult social care, health, and adjacent regulated sectors where safety, compliance, and service user outcomes are paramount.
02
The solution
Rinnova mobilised quickly, applying our advisor-led model and deep sector insight to identify a strong and diverse shortlist of high-calibre candidates. As well as individuals closely matched to the brief, we presented those bringing distinctive expertise and perspective from adjacent roles and sectors, broadening the lens through which Voyage Care could consider the opportunity and the qualities they were seeking.
Candidates presented brought credentials that included:
- Senior board and committee-level experience, including prior Committee Chairing roles
- Deep expertise in quality, safety, and regulatory governance within complex, regulated environments
- Experience spanning adult social care, NHS, and parallel regulated sectors
- A data-literate and intellectually rigorous approach to quality improvement
- The independence, credibility, and authority to hold executive teams to account
03
The impact
Voyage Care appointed Tom Cahill. A values-led leader with over 30 years of experience in mental health and learning disability services. Tom brings exceptional expertise in quality governance, system transformation, and board-level leadership, having led Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to a CQC Outstanding rating as CEO, and served as National Director for Learning Disability and Autism at NHS England.
The outcomes delivered for Voyage Care included:
- Appointment of a Chair with outstanding credentials in quality, safety, governance, and care system leadership
- A shortlist that included both closely-matched and distinctively different candidates, enabling a fully informed appointment decision
- A search process conducted with speed and rigour, giving the Board confidence at every stage
- Strengthened QSR Committee leadership to support Voyage Care’s ambition for sustained quality improvement and regulatory excellence
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