Wes Streeting Cuts NHS HQ Staff Numbers In Half

Plans to cut personnel numbers in half at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care were revealed yesterday amidst extreme cost-cutting measures.

The ‚bonfire of bureaucrats‘ is focused on getting rid of duplication across the organisations after their workforces swelled throughout the pandemic.

Health secretary Wes Streeting is likewise looking for to tighten his control over the NHS, provide better value for taxpayers and free-up money for the frontline.

Three more NHS England board members yesterday announced they will quit at the end of this month, following the recent resignations of president Amanda Pritchard and nationwide medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis.

The most recent leaders to join the exodus are Julian Kelly, the chief financial officer, Emily Lawson, the chief running officer, and Steve Russell, the chief delivery officer and nationwide director for vaccination and screening.

NHS England is the nationwide quango charged with supervising the day to day running of the health service and its long-lasting technique.

It was established by the Tories in 2013 to provide it greater political self-reliance however Mr Streeting is eager to gain back tighter control from within his Department.

NHS England stated in a statement: ‚As part of the requirement to make best possible use of taxpayers‘ cash to support frontline services, the size of NHS England will be radically decreased and might see the size of the centre decline by around half.‘

The much deeper staffing cuts follow a reduction of about 4,000 to 6,000 workers at NHS England over the previous two years and about 800 at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Health secretary Wes Streeting is likewise looking for to tighten his control over the NHS, in the middle of strategies to cut staff numbers in half at NHS England and the Department of Health

Former NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard will step down from her position at the end of this month

NHS England chief delivery officer Steve Russell (left) and chief operating officer Emily Lawson (ideal) are among the latest managers to sign up with the exodus

Sir Jim Mackey, who will become interim president at the start of April, will establish a shift team within NHS England to ‚lead the extreme reduction and reshaping of the centre with the Department of Health and Social Care‘.

He said: ‚We know that today’s news is unsettling for our personnel, and we have substantial challenges and modifications ahead.’We aim to have a shift team in place to start on the first April 2025 to help lead us through this duration.‘

Ms Pritchard said in a note to staff, seen by the Health Service Journal: ‚In the last number of weeks, I have stated I believe the time is best for radical reform of the size and functions of the centre to best support regional NHS systems and companies to deliver for patients and drive the federal government’s reform top priorities.‘

She said Mr Streeting had actually asked Sir Jim and Penny Dash, the inbound NHS England chair, to ‚lead this work, delivering substantial modifications in our relationship with DHSC to eliminate duplication‘.

Mr Streeting stated: ‚I ‚d like to put on record my thanks to Julian, Emily and Steve for their dedication as public servants, and their work in particular helping steer the NHS through the pandemic.

‚I’ve taken pleasure in working with each of them over the last 8 months and I’ve been impressed by their ability and focus on providing improvement for clients and staff.

‚We are getting in a period of critical change for our NHS. ‚With a more powerful relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, we will work together with the speed and urgency required to meet the scale of the obstacle.‘

As of June in 2015, NHS England employed simply under 15,000 full-time equivalent staff, consisting of irreversible, short-term and consultancy. The Department of Health and Social Care had around 9,000, consisting of the UK Health Security Agency. These are both around 30 per cent more than in January 2020.

NHS England chief monetary officer Julian Kelly has likewise included his name to leaders resigning from their positions

Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS nationwide medical director, revealed recently he would step down this summer

UNISON head of health Helga Pile stated: ‚Staff will be naturally concerned about this sudden modification of instructions.

‚The variety of redundancies being sought at NHS England has actually trebled in simply a matter of weeks.

‚Em ployees there have actually currently been through the mill with rounds of reorganisation. What was already a stressful prospect has now ended up being more like a headache.

‚Fixing a broken NHS needs a proper strategy, with central bodies resourced and managed successfully so local services are supported.

‚Rushing through cuts brings a risk of creating an even more, more complex mess and might ultimately hold the NHS back. That would let down the very people who need it most, the patients.‘

Matthew Taylor, president of the NHS Confederation, said: ‚These changes are occurring at a scale and rate not anticipated to begin with, but given the huge savings that the NHS needs to make this year it makes sense to minimize locations of duplication at a national level and for the NHS to be led by a leaner centre.

‚NHS England has actually currently delivered significant savings and helped to provide improvements in efficiency, but nationwide bodies and local NHS leaders know that more is required this year.

‚These modifications represent the biggest reshaping of the NHS’s national architecture in more than a years. It is necessary that local NHS organisations and other bodies are associated with this change as the instant next actions become clearer, so that an optimum operating model can be produced.

‚This need to be about doing things in a different way for the benefit of regional neighborhoods as both clients and taxpayers, in addition to for personnel ahead of yearly survey results on Thursday that are yet once again expected to reveal the extreme obstacles they face.‘

Wes Streeting