NHS England and ICBs will be making 18,000 administrative posts redundant without the Government making extra funding available for payouts.
The programme can now launch, as the Department of Health and Social Care today said that ‘arrangements have been agreed with HM Treasury’. However it added that this ‘will be from within the existing funding settlement’.
Amounting to around 50% of all staff, the DHSC said 18,000 administrative posts will go. And although the Government said this would eventually free up ‘more than £1bn’ that will be reinvested in the NHS, it has also been estimated that the redundancy programme itself could cost a similar amount.
As reported by our sister title Healthcare Leader, NHS England had been trying to secure funding from the Treasury for the programme.
In a speech yesterday at the NHS Providers Conference in Manchester, health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘From today I’m giving ICBs the go ahead and the funding for the voluntary redundancy programmes that staff have been waiting for. This will see overall head count cut by 50 per cent which will particularly affect roles in corporate services, communications and administration.
‘Alongside this, we’re moving ahead with the abolition of NHS England and we’ll complete it to the timetable the Prime Minister announced in March. Head count across my department and NHS England will also be halved, returning to the size we had in 2010, when the NHS delivered the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in history. This move will free up more than a billion pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline care.
‘To, anyone listening at home…. I want to reassure you that our investment is not simply pouring more water into a leaky bucket. We’re plugging the holes cutting out the waste, and rebuilding our National Health Service.’
The Department of Health and Social Care said the costs saved could for example ‘fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations’.
The Government announcement also reiterated the planned timetable for the abolition of NHS England within two years.
BMA chair of council Dr Tom Dolphin said said the union was ‘concerned about the effect of losing many roles at once from NHS England on the “shift to prevention”, especially in public health and planning, and the impact on all staff losing their livelihoods’.
And he added: ‘To suggest these projected savings could fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations may well be the case, but we do not have enough surgeons, anaesthetists and other theatre staff, or operating space fit for purpose, to meet existing demand.
‘We need to see the money spent filling gaps on rotas, creating much-needed training jobs for resident doctors, and restoring the value of staff salaries to show that our worth is recognised. And let’s not forget the NHS maintenance backlog standing at nearly £16bn, with many hospitals struggling with unsafe, outdated buildings.
‘We hope the health secretary will recognise that investment in staff, training and buildings and equipment is needed if the savings he is talking of are to truly translate into improved patient care.’
Chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, said: ‘This is a pragmatic step that means planned redundancies can now go ahead.
‘It reflects the flexibility of a three-year settlement, allowing some funding to be brought forward in order to generate future savings to go into frontline care.
‘However we must recognise the position of staff affected by these changes – people who have offered commitment and service to the NHS – who face a very uncertain future.’
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘This is a welcome move that provides certainty to NHS leaders who can now go ahead with planned redundancies.
‘It has been a difficult period of uncertainty for our members and we know this has placed a strain on staff.
‘We’ll await the full details but for now we are pleased to see that this situation has been resolved and that we can proceed with the redundancy programme. This will provide clarity for staff and help release savings down the line.’
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse
