CareNHS — Campaign for Responsible Leadership in NHS Wales

What They Said Themselves

No interpretation needed. These are DHCW's own leaders — the CEO, the Chair, the directors — admitting to failures in their own words, in public meetings, on the official record. We just wrote them down.

The most powerful evidence against DHCW does not come from external critics, Freedom of Information requests, or leaked documents. It comes from DHCW's own leaders, speaking on the public record — in live-streamed accountability meetings, in published media interviews, in official correspondence, and in Senedd proceedings.

These statements were made voluntarily, by named individuals, in forums where they knew they were being recorded. They cannot be denied, retracted, or dismissed as taken out of context. They are admissions — sometimes inadvertent, sometimes remarkably candid — that reveal an organisation unable to demonstrate the value of its work, unable to deliver its programmes, and unable to say when things will improve.

Every quote below is drawn from publicly available, verifiable sources: Senedd proceedings, Welsh Government published correspondence, live-streamed Public Accountability Meetings, and published media interviews.

On the inability to demonstrate value

"We don't have an ROI on all of our investments."

Helen Thomas, Chief Executive, DHCW — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

DHCW spends in excess of £78 million per year of public money. It has grown its workforce by 78% since 2019. And its own Chief Executive states, on the record, that the organisation cannot calculate the return on investment for the money it spends. This is not a minor operational gap — and it is not new. Three years earlier, in October 2022, DHCW was asked by the Senedd whether £30 million spent on WCCIS represented value for money. The answer was: "that's quite a tricky question to answer in terms of the quantification of the benefits" (Senedd Joint Committee Report, July 2023, para 27). The inability to demonstrate value was identified in 2023 and unchanged in 2026.

"It would be lovely to sit here and be able to demonstrate the value."

Helen Thomas, Chief Executive, DHCW — asked whether 25% workforce growth had produced measurable patient benefit — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

The conditional tense is revealing. It would be "lovely" to demonstrate value. The implication is clear: the organisation cannot. A quarter more staff, consuming millions more in salary costs, and the Chief Executive's best answer to whether this has benefited patients is that she wishes she could show that it had.

"It would be like asking, what are the benefits of having electricity or having water available to run our services?"

Helen Thomas, Chief Executive, DHCW — comparing the difficulty of measuring digital ROI to quantifying the benefits of utility services — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

This analogy was offered as a defence. It is, in fact, a confession. Electricity and water providers can tell you exactly how much they deliver, to whom, at what cost, and with what reliability — they are among the most heavily measured services in the economy. The comparison was intended to make measurement sound unreasonable; it actually demonstrates that DHCW has not attempted what utility companies do as routine.

"We're on a journey, we're not where we should be."

Claire Osmundsen-Little, Director of Finance, DHCW — on the organisation's ability to demonstrate the benefits of its spending — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

"Journey" is a standard deflection — it implies progress without specifying where the organisation is, how far it has to go, or when it expects to arrive. DHCW has existed since 2021 and its predecessor NWIS for over a decade before that. The destination is not in sight.

"...that's quite a tricky question to answer in terms of the quantification of the benefits."

DHCW, asked whether £30 million spent on WCCIS represented value for money — Oral evidence to the Senedd, 26 October 2022 (Joint Committee Report, July 2023, para 27)

Three years before the CEO admitted "We don't have an ROI on all of our investments," DHCW was already telling the Senedd it found measuring value "tricky." The inability to demonstrate returns was not discovered in 2026. It was flagged in 2023 and left unaddressed.

"So, I think that's a collective responsibility. I don't think it is a wholly DHCW responsibility."

DHCW, asked whose responsibility it was to ensure WCCIS adoption — Oral evidence to the Senedd, 26 October 2022 (Joint Committee Report, July 2023, para 33)

When nobody owns a failure, nobody can be held accountable for it. The Senedd committees warned in 2023: "It is not clear who is responsible for take up of the system. Where take up has been refused, we are unclear as to the reasons for this, what impact it will have, and how any issues arising from the refusal are being dealt with" (para 37).

"The organisation remains some distance from being able to consistently quantify return on investment."

Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care — Letter to DHCW, 12 February 2026

This is not DHCW's self-assessment. This is the Welsh Government's assessment of DHCW, delivered in formal correspondence by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the organisation. "Some distance" is civil service language for a serious deficiency. The inability to quantify ROI is not a technical problem — it is a governance failure. An organisation that cannot demonstrate the value of its spending cannot be held accountable for that spending.

On programme delivery failures

"It's been mired in delay, non-delivery."

Nick Wood, Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Wales — on the NHS Wales App — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

This is not an external critic. This is the senior NHS Wales official responsible for overseeing DHCW's delivery, describing the organisation's flagship public-facing product as "mired in delay, non-delivery."

"People are clearly not adopting it, because it's not there for what they want it to be there for."

Nick Wood, Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Wales — on the NHS Wales App — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

After years of development and millions in expenditure, the product does not meet its users' needs. This is not a technical failure — it is a product failure, acknowledged by the senior official responsible for overseeing DHCW's work.

"I think it's really hard to put a time point on when we'll hit that critical mass."

Sam Hall, Director, DHCW — on when the NHS Wales App will achieve sufficient functionality for meaningful public adoption — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

When pressed on timelines, DHCW's own director cannot offer a date, a target, or even a range. The organisation has no credible delivery plan for the NHS Wales App — or at least not one its own director is willing to commit to in public.

"I think that's a bit of a gap at the moment."

Helen Thomas, Chief Executive, DHCW — on the NHS Wales App roadmap — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

The Chief Executive describes the roadmap for DHCW's most important public-facing product as having "a bit of a gap." A roadmap with a gap is not a roadmap — it is a document that stops short of answering the only question it exists to answer.

"The public need a more integrated, seamless, and universally reliable product before this can be described as the primary digital front door for Wales."

Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care — Letter to DHCW, 12 February 2026

DHCW has presented the App as "the primary digital front door for Wales." The Cabinet Secretary, in formal correspondence, says it has not earned that description. This is the organisation's political principal publicly contradicting its central product claim.

"There is a tipping point where, actually, if we have delays and reprofiling, the benefits reduce... the benefits might be zero by the end. If we'd have known that, we'd have never started."

Welsh Government official — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

This is perhaps the most devastating admission captured in any public forum. A Welsh Government official states that delays have been so severe that programme benefits may have been entirely eroded — tens of millions of pounds, potentially producing nothing. And the admission that follows — "If we'd have known that, we'd have never started" — is not external criticism. It is the funder saying the money may have been wasted.

On organisational culture and governance

"We share your frustration as a board when things don't happen as quickly as possible, or we get informed in what we perceive to be late in the day."

Ruth Glazzard, Interim Chair, DHCW — Public Accountability Meeting, 29 January 2026

The Chair of DHCW's board is admitting, in public, that the board itself does not receive timely information from its own executive team. The board is the governance body responsible for holding the executive to account. If the board is not informed "in what we perceive to be late in the day," it cannot perform its oversight function. The Chair is describing a governance failure — from the inside.

"My clear expectation is DHCW must alert Welsh Government significantly earlier when risks threaten delivery, avoiding the pattern of late notification that undermines system confidence."

Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care — Letter to DHCW, 12 February 2026

The Cabinet Secretary identifies a specific pattern: DHCW notifies Welsh Government of delivery risks too late. This is not a one-off complaint. He describes it as a "pattern" — a repeated behaviour. And he identifies its consequence: it "undermines system confidence." The Welsh Government does not trust DHCW to tell it about problems in time to do anything about them.

"Are we ready for the next one? No."

Helen Thomas, Chief Executive, DHCW — asked about pandemic preparedness — Digital Health interview, January 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic was the most significant test of NHS digital infrastructure in a generation. It exposed critical gaps in data sharing, remote access, and system interoperability. Asked whether Wales is prepared for the next pandemic, the Chief Executive of the organisation responsible for NHS Wales digital infrastructure says: "No." One word. No caveats, no qualifications, no mitigating context. The person whose job it is to ensure digital readiness admits the country is not ready.

"The culture at NWIS was the antithesis of open."

Welsh Public Accounts Committee — November 2018

NWIS — the NHS Wales Informatics Service — was DHCW's predecessor organisation. It was renamed and restructured to become DHCW in 2021, but the workforce, the leadership pipeline, and much of the management culture carried over. The Public Accounts Committee's finding — that the culture was "the antithesis of open" — is a formal parliamentary assessment, made after taking evidence and deliberating. It is not a passing remark. It is a verdict.

The question that this verdict raises is simple: what has changed? DHCW's own board chair admits the board receives late information. The Cabinet Secretary identifies a "pattern of late notification." Zero whistleblowing data is published. Zero disciplinary data is published. Leavers analysis is suppressed. When the observable indicators are measured against the 2018 finding, the evidence of cultural transformation is absent.

"Complex, data-heavy, burdensome, lacks transparency and does not drive improvement."

Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care — on the governance framework for NHS Wales organisations including DHCW — March 2026

The Cabinet Secretary responsible for DHCW's oversight describes the very framework meant to hold organisations like DHCW accountable as one that "does not drive improvement." This is not a campaigner's critique — it is the government's own assessment that the architecture of accountability is failing. When the person who designed the oversight system admits it does not work, the case for structural reform is made by the system's own architect.

Source Note

Every quotation on this page is drawn from publicly available, verifiable sources:

  • Public Accountability Meetings: Live-streamed meetings held by DHCW, accessible through DHCW's website and public records
  • Welsh Government correspondence: Official letters published through Welsh Government channels
  • Senedd proceedings: Evidence sessions and committee reports from the Welsh Parliament, available through the Senedd's public record
  • Published media interviews: Interviews published in Digital Health and other sector publications

These are not leaked documents. These are not anonymous sources. These are the words of named, senior public officials, spoken or written on the public record. They describe an organisation that cannot demonstrate the value of its spending, cannot deliver its programmes on time, cannot say when they will be delivered, and cannot assure its own government that it will communicate problems promptly.

They said it themselves.

What You Can Do

This evidence exists because someone looked. You can help make sure it leads to change:

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