Dalton review into management of hospitals featured Jim Easton of Care UK as one of its experts – and he was representing the main private sector lobby group, an FoI request shows

The authors of a major report on changes to NHS hospitals failed to declare that a lobbying network for the private healthcare industry was on its advisory panel, new documents suggest.

The Dalton review, a government-commissioned report which last year concluded that private companies could oversee management of NHS hospitals, was advised by a panel of experts that included Jim Easton, the managing director of private health firm Care UK.

The report claimed panel members were advising “in a personal capacity, rather than as representatives of their organisations”. But documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal Easton was in fact representing the NHS Partners Network, the UK’s primary lobbying group for the private healthcare sector.

When asked by the Guardian about his role, Easton, a senior civil servant at the Department of Health until 2012, denied that he had breached rules preventing him from lobbying the government for two years.

Jim Easton, managing director of Care UK, represented the NHS Partners Network, a lobbying group for the private healthcare industry, on a panel providing advice for the Dalton review. Photograph: the Guardian

The NHS Partners Network’s undeclared representation on the panel of the review is revealed in correspondence between David Hare, the group’s chief executive, and Lord Howe, aka Frederick Curzon, the hereditary peer who was a Conservative health minister at the time.

Emails released in 2010 revealed how the NHS Partners Network previously helped to draft a letter for an NHS regulator calling for an inquiry into “maverick behaviours” by health commissioners who might be resisting private sector involvement.

Hare wrote in 2014: “We have welcomed our seat on the Dalton review and have continually pressed to ensure that the option of independent sector leadership or partnership in hospital chains remains open.”



There was no mention of the NHS Partners Network in the report of the Dalton review.



“With review planning having now moved towards ‘credentialing’ [a scheme to accredit successful healthcare providers with management models other NHS organisations could copy] we think it vital that the process for accreditation includes independent sector provision,” he wrote.



“Whilst there was some initial ambiguity about some of these issues, which we reported when we met on 18 June, I am pleased that this approach has been adopted to date. It is obviously important that this continues through to include any action from the review and I will continue to update you on how we feel this important project is developing.”

Howe sent a response suggesting he thought this a reference to the group’s parent organisation, the NHS Confederation. But in a second letter, sent shortly after the publication of the Dalton review in December, Hare explicitly stated: “Through Jim Easton from Care UK, the NHS Partners Network was represented on the advisory group for Sir David’s report.”



Howe replied: “I am delighted that through Jim Easton, the NHS Partners Network was able to contribute to the development of the report and I know Sir David and the review team found the insights from the expert panel members an invaluable resource.”



Howe suggested private providers could look forward to inclusion in future schemes. “I am sure members of the NHS Partners Network will have a role to play in many such locally determined arrangements, utilising the strengths and experience you mention,” he wrote.



In a statement on behalf of Easton, Care UK said: “[The] clear intent was to ensure that non-traditional providers were required to demonstrate the same high standards as NHS foundation trusts in order to be allowed to participate in any selection process.



“It is completely false to characterise this as lobbying for commercial advantage either for an individual company or for the sector as a whole.”



The NHS Partners Network said it was public knowledge that Easton had a seat on the board of the organisation and that this was known when he was invited to join the expert panel.

Immediately after the publication of David Dalton’s report - which featured case studies of private companies running NHS hospitals – the health secretary announced a £200m trial of new management protocols. Photograph: the Guardian

While not explicitly endorsing private sector involvement, Dalton’s report concluded that “safeguarding reliable, high-quality care to patients is more important than preserving organisations” and featured case studies of private companies involved in state-run hospitals. Immediately after publication, Hunt announced £200m for trialling new management structures.

Dalton told the Guardian he invited Easton to the panel for his “exemplary career”, and that his advisers did not draft the report. “At no time did I experience, nor would I have permitted, any lobbying for factional interests. To suggest this was the case is incorrect and wrong,” he said.

The Department of Health said: “The independent Dalton review was set up to improve care and learn from other world-leading health systems and categorically not about furthering privatisation in the NHS, as we made clear when we launched the review.”



Easton, a former senior civil servant at the DoH, had promised not to lobby the UK government on behalf of his new employer for two years after he left government service in November 2012. Care UK is one of 25 private healthcare firms represented by the NHS Partners Network.



The restriction was one of a number of conditions imposed by the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) when Easton informed the DoH that he wished to become Care UK’s managing director.



The business appointment rules for civil servants state: “Lobbying in this context means that the former civil servant should not engage in communication with government – including ministers, special advisers and officials – with a view to influencing a government decision or policy in relation to their own interests, or the interests of the organisation by which they are employed, or to whom they are contracted.”



Care UK denied Easton had breached Acoba’s rules. “No lobbying on behalf of Care UK took place. Jim Easton was invited to join the expert panel by Sir David Dalton and the Department of Health to represent the perspective of the independent sector as a whole, including that of Care UK’s direct competitors,” they wrote, adding: “This role was made clear and fully understood at all review panel meetings.”