A New Chair for IBCA: What the Infected Blood Community Needs Next

By The Unheard Voice

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is preparing for a significant change in leadership.

Sir Robert Francis KC, who has served as IBCA’s Interim Chair, will leave the organisation when his term concludes on 22 November 2026. The recruitment process for a permanent Chair is now underway, with applications closing at 11:59pm on 14 September.

The successful candidate will serve for three years and lead IBCA’s Board while the authority continues administering compensation to thousands of infected and affected people.

This is much more than a senior public appointment.

The next Chair will inherit responsibility for an organisation attempting to deliver justice after decades of denial, institutional failure and avoidable suffering.

The community needs that person to listen, challenge and lead with courage.

A crucial moment for IBCA

As of 25 August, IBCA reported that 6,321 people had been invited to begin their claim, 5,785 had started the process and 3,512 had received compensation. Just over £2.25 billion had been paid.

Every completed payment matters. Each represents a person or family who has waited far too long for recognition.

But thousands of claims remain unresolved, including complicated cases involving deceased estates, missing medical records, disputed evidence and families who have never previously received support.

IBCA also aims to bring 5,000 claims to a decision between April 2026 and March 2027.

The next Chair must therefore help the organisation increase its pace without allowing speed to replace fairness, accuracy or compassion.

Valuable experience within the appointment process

The official appointment information shows that the Advisory Assessment Panel includes senior public-sector and charitable leaders.

Rachel Halford, Chief Executive of The Hepatitis C Trust, brings extensive experience of supporting people affected by viral hepatitis. Kirsty McHugh, Chief Executive of Carers Trust, brings important knowledge of the realities faced by unpaid carers.

That experience should be welcomed.

Organisations such as the Hepatitis C Trust have worked closely with infected and affected people, helped individuals understand complicated evidence requirements and ensured their concerns reach those with the power to act.

Their involvement can help keep the community’s real experiences visible throughout the recruitment process.

However, no single individual, charity or campaign group can represent every experience within such a large and diverse community. The successful Chair must therefore continue listening widely after the appointment has been made.

Trust must be demonstrated

The published job description says the next Chair must be capable of commanding the respect and trust of the infected blood community.

That must be treated as a continuing responsibility—not a requirement that ends when the successful candidate is appointed.

Trust will depend upon whether the new Chair is prepared to listen to difficult experiences without becoming defensive, challenge the organisation when something is not working and demand clear explanations for delays.

They must ensure complex claims receive careful consideration, recognise the different experiences of infected and affected people and make community engagement meaningful.

Victims and families have heard promises before.

The next Chair must demonstrate through decisions and actions that community voices are shaping the organisation rather than simply being collected as feedback.

One community with many experiences

The infected blood community includes people living with HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; people with bleeding disorders; people infected through transfusions; bereaved partners; parents; children; siblings; unpaid carers and representatives of deceased estates.

Some people are supported by established charities and campaign groups. Others are navigating the process alone.

Some have extensive medical records. Others are trying to prove what happened after records were lost, destroyed or never properly created.

Some have campaigned publicly for decades. Others have only recently discovered that they or their loved ones may have been victims of the scandal.

The next Chair must understand that there is no single community experience.

Engagement must reach beyond the loudest voices, the largest organisations and those already known to officials. It must include people who feel forgotten, exhausted or unable to fight.

Compassion must reach the individual claim

IBCA frequently speaks about delivering compensation with care, respect and compassion.

Those values must be visible throughout every claim.

Compassion means recognising that asking for decades-old evidence can reopen trauma.

It means understanding why families become distressed when updates provide no meaningful timetable.

It means explaining decisions in language people can understand.

It means ensuring applicants do not feel punished because their medical records are incomplete, their family circumstances are complicated or their case does not fit neatly within a standard process.

A compassionate system is not measured by its public statements. It is measured by how people are treated when they need help.

Independence must be visible

IBCA is an arm’s-length public body sponsored by the Cabinet Office. The next Chair will act as a bridge between the Board and government while holding IBCA’s Chief Executive and Executive Team to account.

That requires independence and sound judgement.

There may be moments when the interests of the infected blood community require uncomfortable questions to be asked of IBCA, ministers or officials.

The new Chair must be prepared to ask them.

Independence cannot exist only within governance documents. The community must be able to see it through transparent decisions, honest communication and a willingness to acknowledge mistakes.

What the community should expect

The next Chair should make clear commitments from the beginning:

* to meet regularly with infected and affected people from across the United Kingdom; * to publish what IBCA has heard and what it has changed in response; * to monitor patterns in complaints, delays and disputed decisions; * to ensure missing historical records are considered within the reality of the scandal; * to provide meaningful information about claims that cannot progress; * to protect fairness while IBCA increases the pace of its decisions; * to remain accessible and accountable throughout their term; * and to recognise that restoring trust will require time, honesty and evidence.

The community must remain at the centre

Sir Robert Francis has said that regaining the community’s trust depends upon its continued involvement in shaping the processes through which awards are made.

That principle must continue under IBCA’s next Chair.

The presence of respected organisations such as the Hepatitis C Trust within the recruitment process provides valuable experience and insight. The successful candidate must build upon that by listening across the full breadth of the infected and affected community.

This appointment is an opportunity to choose a Chair who understands that IBCA is not simply administering a financial scheme. It is delivering part of the country’s response to decades of injustice.

The next Chair will inherit an organisation with enormous responsibility and unfinished work.

The community should expect someone who will listen carefully, challenge fearlessly and never lose sight of the people behind every claim number.

Because this role is not simply about leading IBCA.

It is about helping to deliver justice that thousands of people—and thousands of families—have already waited far too long to receive.

— The Unheard Voice