A public inquiry into the scandal-hit Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust is still without a chair more than six months after it was announced.
The Government has now said a chair will be appointed “soon”, but has not provided a timeline for when the inquiry will formally begin.
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Luke Myer raised concerns over the delay in a written question to the Government on June 16. The Labour MP asked what progress had been made in appointing a chair to the statutory investigation and what steps were being taken to allow consultation on the inquiry’s terms of reference to begin.
TEWV has faced intense scrutiny in recent years over a number of serious failings, including cases involving the deaths of three teenage girls in 2019 and 2020. In December 2025, then Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced that a statutory public inquiry would be launched into mental health services provided by the trust.
The announcement came after he met families in Darlington who had lost loved ones while under the trust’s care.
Responding on behalf of the Government on June 30, Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill said the Department of Health and Social Care remained committed to establishing the inquiry. She said: “The department has begun work to set up the inquiry, the inquiry secretary is in post, and we anticipate announcing the chair soon.
“The terms of reference are the responsibility of the chair once in post.”
The delay follows concerns raised by families affected by the trust’s failings, who said earlier this year that the Government had “gone silent” after promising a public inquiry. In May, relatives and former patients said they had been left in “limbo” while waiting for details about the investigation.
Previous reviews into the deaths of the three teenagers found they had each been failed by services, with 119 shortcomings identified across the NHS and social care systems.
The inquiry is expected to examine the circumstances surrounding serious incidents at the trust and determine whether lessons were learned from past failings.
However, until a chair is appointed, consultation on the inquiry’s scope and terms of reference cannot begin.
