An ICB which had warned of community services cuts unless its staff costs reduced by one fifth has managed to convince a sufficient number to sign up to a voluntary resignation scheme.
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB had asked staff to sign up to the voluntary mutually agreed resignation scheme (MARS) after inheriting a large £20m deficit from its eight CCG predecessors.
At an internal briefing staff were told that the ICB was looking for a 20% cut in staffing costs in order to make the savings it needed.
The ICB was facing an increasingly challenging financial context that ‘was almost changing by the week’, staff were told.
Doing nothing would mean the deficit would double by the year end, they heard.
If enough staff did not come forward, cuts would need to be found elsewhere including in community health services, the ICB had warned.
MARS is a form of voluntary severance, which NHS employers has said can help organisations avoid the need for future redundancies.
Kevin Lavery, chief executive of NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, said: ‘The NHS in Lancashire and South Cumbria faces difficult financial challenges and, as with most other areas of the country, we will need to make some tough decisions.
‘As an ICB, we need to look at ways in which we can use our resources more effectively and have recently agreed a number of measures to tackle some of these financial challenges.
‘One of these measures was a mutually agreed resignation scheme (MARS) which was offered to all staff employed by the ICB.
‘I am pleased to say that following review of the response to the MARS we are confident we have made positive steps on cost reductions which means we will not need to make cuts to services.
‘We will continue to make sure that as an ICB our priority is to provide high-quality and efficient health and care services for our residents.’
Pulse has reported on many challenges Cumbrian practices have been facing.
In August, Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB withdrew £73,000 of funding from Central Lakes Medical Group to finance the tourist service, which forced partners at its Ambleside and Hawkshead practices to hand back their contract.
Note: This article was updated at 10am on 4 January 2023 to reflect that the ICB cut 20% of staff costs rather than 20% of staff.
These ICBs are being creamed by top management. Nameless nobody’s. And soon American management. Never looked so corrupt the blatant plan.
Might put in a FOI request to look at their accounts – see where the public spending is going.
Strange that, hasn’t NHS been subjected to many efficacy drives and here we can cut out 20% in one go.
Makes me wonder how productive they were in first place?
There definitely won’t be emergency winter/Easter/summer/coronationChickenSalmonella events that require emergency short term funding to rehire the staff as contractors at a much hire rate. That definitely won’t happen.