United Response has appointed Kate Terroni, interim chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, as its next chief executive.

Terroni will take up the post from Belinda Phipps, who has been interim chief executive of the disability charity for the past year.

Phipps took up the interim role after the charity’s former chief executive, Tim Cooper, left the top job last year, after nine years in post. Cooper is now a non-executive director for the community interest company Sirona Care & Health.

Terroni, who will take up the post at the end of April, brings 23 years of experience in social care to the role, having most recently been the interim chief executive of the Care Quality Commission.

Before taking on that role, Terroni was deputy chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, having previously been the regulator’s chief inspector of adult social care from 2019 to 2023.

She has also been the director of adult social care for Oxfordshire County Council from 2016 to 2019.

United Response said Terroni will use her passion for co-production to “deliver a long-term vision which builds on the charity’s 50-year history as one of the largest providers of social care support in England and Wales”.

Terroni said: “From support worker to social worker, director of social services to regulator, I have committed to putting the voices of people who receive care at heart of everything I do. I am delighted that I can use my experience from working across social care to lead an organisation that shares the same values and ambitions for the people we support.”

Malcolm McCaig, chair of United Response, said: “Kate is a strategic leader; her experience, passions and values will help drive our work forward. 

“Having undergone a significant transformation, Kate will now support United Response's growth and development. I and my fellow trustees look forward to working with Kate and the team on these plans for the benefit of the people we support.”