Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Deferred
NHS England lacks detailed plan and cost estimates for workforce reduction.
Recommendation
We observed that the scale of change was bigger in NHS England than the Department, and so asked NHS England about its plans to reduce its workforce. It confirmed that it did not currently have a detailed plan to achieve that reduction. It told us it that it had implemented a recruitment freeze, which it expected to reduce headcount by 10% as staff left and were not replaced, but acknowledged that a redundancy scheme might be required to achieve the remaining 40% reduction. We noted that redundancy and reorganisation would cost money, and asked if NHS England had estimated how much money it might need to spend on any redundancy programmes to deliver the required headcount reduction. NHS England told us that it did not have a firm estimate of this, but noted 8 Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, pages 214–242 9 Qq 9, 13; NHS England, NHS England board members stepping down, 10 March 2025 10 Qq 2–4, 8 27 11 that “at best” it would assume that it would need to “pay on average the annual salary if a redundancy package is required”, although its turnover rate would mean that not everyone would be required to be made redundant.11
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the recommendation regarding NHS England's workforce reduction plans and is currently developing its plans for staff transfers, with information on the size of resource functions expected to be confirmed in Autumn 2025.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: August 2025 1.2 The Department of Health and Social Care (the department) is carefully considering lessons learnt from previous organisational changes as it takes forward the programme to create a single new organisation. 1.3 The reforms are designed to address the failures of the 2012 NHS restructuring, reducing bureaucracy and duplication to improve care delivery. Equally, the government is also building a new organisation that can deliver on the Health Mission and 10 Year Plan, through enabling and supporting the health and care system and those who lead it locally. 1.4 The department has assessed the current functions across both organisations, agreed a senior structure for the future department, and is developing its plans for the transfer of staff from NHS England to the department. The department is committed to transparency throughout this process and, in keeping with this, has shared this information with staff across both organisations. The department has also written to the Committee Chair on the 7 July 2025 to describe these plans in more detail. 1.5 Information relating to the size of resource functions is likely to be confirmed in Autumn 2025.