David Walden

David has extensive experience of central government, national agencies and delivery organisations. Much of his career was spent in the Department of Health, ending as Head of Social Care Policy. He has also worked in an acute hospital NHS Trust and a voluntary sector housing and care provider. 

He was Director of Strategy at regulator, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, between 2004 and 2009, and was responsible for many CSCI reports, including on home care services, investment in care and the operation of councils’ eligibility criteria.  

He then became Director of Adult Services at the Social Care Institute for Excellence, retiring in June 2012. He was a self-employed policy consultant between 2012 and 2019.

David is a Trustee of Affinity Trust, a provider of services for learning disabled people. Between 2015 and 2020 he was a Non-Executive Director at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

David was made a CBE in 2013 for services to health and social care.