Candida Perera Head of Improvement Programmes

Candida joined the Health Foundation in November 2018 as the Head of Improvement Programmes.

Candida has over a decade’s experience developing health system strategy within both the private and public sector. This has enabled her to play a leading role in shaping both national and international policy across the national health service (NHS in England), government (National Audit Office/Public Accounts Committee), academia (LSE Health & Social Care) and strategic management consultancy (McKinsey & Company).

Before joining the Health Foundation, Candida led NHS Improvement’s pricing strategy for outpatient services, shaping payment policy to support the implementation of innovative models of care. 

Her work within the field of health and care has spanned a range of key functions and domains, working to support the transformation and continuous improvement of health and care services. This has included leading whole-system reconfiguration of local heath economies using clinical service reviews; designing the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) preliminary “Early Warnings Signal” Intelligence system used to regulate the quality and safety of acute care in England and developing long term provider strategy to support clinical, operational and financial resilience within hospitals.

Prior to this Candida worked at the government’s public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, working to understand the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of Department of Health policies. This included examining the value for money of a range of policies spanning from the implementation of the National Stroke Strategy in 2010, the assessment of NHS provider productivity and the NHS’ management of high value equipment within hospital settings.