Kate Terroni, interim chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that she will be leaving the organisation.

James Bullion, who has been acting in the role of interim chief executive during Terroni’s recent leave of absence, will continue to act in this role until Sir Julian Hartley takes up post as CQC’s permanent chief executive.

Terroni is stepping down from the interim chief executive role with immediate effect. Until her departure from CQC she will be working directly with the chair, Ian Dilks, to plan for the arrival of Sir Julian.

“At the beginning of September, I informed the chair of my decision to not apply for the permanent chief executive role, as I recognised the need for fresh leadership to take us forward,” said Terroni. “It has been a huge privilege to act as interim chief executive, but it has also been an intensely challenging experience, and I needed to take some time away to absorb the impact it has had on me.”

She added: “This led me to think about what comes next – my career has been non-stop for the last 22 years, driven by the desire to make a difference for people who use services, but I now want to take some time to think about what the next 22 years could look like.”

Dilks said: “I want to thank Kate for her enormous contribution to CQC, as chief inspector of adult social care, as deputy chief executive and most recently as interim chief executive.”

He added: “She took up this last role at a particularly challenging time for the organisation. Her openness in acknowledging that we needed radical improvement – and the plans she started to put in place to make this happen – helped lay foundations for the work we have ahead of us to respond to the Dash review and Sir Mike Richards’ report and to rebuild trust with the public, providers and our staff.