Dido Harding has announced that she is stepping down as chair of NHS Improvement in October, a month after being overlooked for the NHS England chief executive role.

The former TalkTalk boss became chair of NHS Improvement in October 2017 before being made executive chair of the government’s Test and Trace programme for England in May last year, a position she held until April.

Her tenure was not without controversy, with the £37 billion scheme deemed by Parliament’s spending watchdog as having no direct impact on reducing coronavirus infection levels. Harding appointment to that role also split opinion, with the Good Law Project cleaning, both in public and in court, that she was appointed in part because of her Conservative party connections, with the position not having been advertised or subject to open competition in the manner normally insisted on for important public sector roles.

Again without open competition, Harding was appointed in August last year to lead the new health body the National Institute for Health Protection, which was to be formed as result of a merger between Public Health England and NHS test-and-trace.

Harding, whose departure from NHS Improvement was first reported by the Health Service Journal, defended the performance of Test and Trace as she applied for the role as the next head of NHS England. Shortly after it was made public, it was reported that Harding had pledged to stop relying on overseas-born doctors and nurses and train British-born replacements instead, as part of her pitch for the role.