Judge John Potter has been appointed to chair the public inquiry into serious failings in mental health care at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed on 17 September.

The inquiry was originally launched by the government in December 2025, following a sustained campaign by bereaved families across the North East and North Yorkshire after an unusually high number of patient deaths by suicide at the trust over the past decade, affecting both adults and children. With Judge Potter's appointment now confirmed, the inquiry will formally begin its work on 21 September, some nine months after it was first promised.

Judge Potter is a retired Circuit Judge and former Deputy Judge of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal, bringing more than forty years of experience in public service, judicial leadership and the administration of justice to the role.

The inquiry will aim to establish what happened during the serious failings in mental health care at the trust, examine why those failings occurred, and determine what changes are needed to help ensure patients receive safe, high quality care going forward. As a statutory inquiry, it carries legal powers to compel current and former trust staff to give evidence under oath, as well as powers to obtain relevant documents and records.

Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper said the families who had been let down by the trust had suffered immeasurable pain. She said Judge Potter had been asked to deliver a comprehensive report examining why and how things went so wrong across the trust's mental health services, and what changes must follow as a result.

Responding to his appointment, Judge Potter said he was honoured to have been appointed to chair the inquiry, and said he was conscious of the responsibility that came with the role.

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, learning disability and eating disorder services to a population of around two million people across County Durham, Darlington and most of North Yorkshire, operating from sites including Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough, West Park Hospital in Darlington, and Cross Lane Hospital in Scarborough, among others.

Concerns about patient safety at the trust have been raised for a number of years, including calls from local authorities for a public inquiry to be established. The scale and duration of concerns raised by families, alongside the number of deaths involved, contributed to sustained pressure on the government to commit to a full statutory investigation, rather than a more limited internal or regional review.

With the chair now formally in place, Judge Potter's immediate priority is expected to be engaging with bereaved families and survivors as the inquiry moves to establish its formal terms of reference, setting out precisely which events, time periods and aspects of the trust's operations will fall within its scope.

The inquiry is expected to examine not only the specific circumstances surrounding individual patient deaths and serious incidents, but also the broader governance and oversight failures that campaigners argue allowed these problems to persist over an extended period. Its eventual findings are anticipated to include recommendations aimed at improving mental health provision both at the trust itself and, potentially, more widely across the NHS.

The nine month gap between the initial commitment to hold an inquiry and the formal appointment of its chair had been a source of frustration for some families and their legal representatives, who had pressed for swifter action given the seriousness of the concerns involved. With Judge Potter now confirmed and the inquiry due to begin its work this week, attention will turn to how quickly it can establish its terms of reference and begin gathering evidence from those affected.

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