{
  "id": 14716596,
  "title": "Top health civil servant urged to play no role in clampdown on ADHD clinics",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/top-health-civil-servant-urged-to-play-no-role-in-clampdown-on-adhd",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-15T14:34:30.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Guardian Health",
    "slug": "guardian-health",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/15/health-department-civil-servant-adhd-clinics-clampdown"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "MPs have urged Samantha Jones, the Permanent Secretary for the Department of Health and Social Care, to refrain from playing a role in the government's plans to regulate private ADHD and autism clinics. The MPs claim that her recent ties to a major provider of neurodiversity assessments, ADHD360, create a conflict of interest. Jones was the chair, director, and shareholder in Keys Group when it purchased ADHD360 for £22.5 million in May 2025. Despite selling her shares and resigning her roles in early June 2025, she was still a non-executive director and shareholder at the time she began her new role at the DHSC on June 16th. Her previous involvement with the company raises concerns over impartiality in the upcoming regulation of private clinics. MPs from both Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are calling for Jones to step down from her position in the regulation process to avoid any perception of bias.",
  "summary": "Four MPs raise conflict of interest concerns over Samantha Jones’s past links to a big provider of ADHD assessments A senior civil servant should play no part in ministers’ crackdown on private ADHD and autism clinics because of her recent ties to the industry, MPs have said. Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs are demanding that Samantha Jones, the Department of Health and Social Care’s permanent…",
  "key_points": [
    "Samantha Jones urged to stay out of ADHD clinic regulation",
    "Conflict of interest due to past ties with ADHD360",
    "MPs from both parties call for her to step down"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}