The Deck Chairs are Moving Yet Again!
The NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) is affected by a wider NHS restructuring that is leading to significant job reductions across Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England. This reorganisation will lead to redundancies and redeployments of staff at a significant cost to the public purse.
The redundancies are mainly the result of a national NHS policy change in 2025 following which the UK government instructed all ICBs to cut their running costs by about 50%. This is part of wider reforms that include bringing NHS England back into the Department of Health and Social Care and reducing administrative bureaucracy.
Across England, around 12,500 ICB jobs could be lost as a result. Redundancies are expected to happen mainly through voluntary redundancy schemes first, with compulsory redundancies possible later if savings are not achieved.
At a local level the LLR ICB manages NHS commissioning for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, replacing earlier Clinical Commissioning Groups. Local reports indicated job losses could be around one-third of staff, though exact figures depend on national negotiations and restructuring plans. The organisation is under pressure to reduce administrative costs by about 50%, like other ICBs.
A major factor behind the potential redundancies is organisational restructuring. LLR ICB is planning to “cluster” with NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, sharing leadership and functions to cut costs. The two boards would operate with joint management structures, though they may remain legally separate bodies for now. This kind of clustering is happening across England, where the number of ICB systems may reduce significantly.
During 2025/2026 LLR ICB must implement workforce reductions and the cluster/merger with NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board.
In summary, the LLR ICB is expected to reduce staff numbers as part of national NHS reforms. The cuts are driven by a requirement to halve administrative costs at ICBs. Local restructuring includes clustering with Northamptonshire ICB, which it is claimed may further reduce duplicate roles. Actual redundancy numbers locally have not been finalised publicly, but significant reductions are expected. Some estimates put this around £5 million in costs.
That is money that could have been ploughed into first line care, for example further GP services or upgrading of premises.
The NHS has been structurally reorganised roughly every 6–8 years for five decades, often before the previous system has fully settled. This is of relevance nationally and locally as the effect of this continued reorganisation causes significant upheaval and a loss of focus upon everyday healthcare. Let’s not forget that the LLR ICB took the decision to close Evington Village’s GP surgery which would have cost little in comparison to the monies wasted on constant rounds of moving the deck chairs.
The next article will examine NHS reorganisation since 1974 and estimate the costs to us as taxpayers.
Sources:
- https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmhealth/1499/1499we06.htm?utm
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/nhs-reform-set-to-cost-ps3-4bn-6372888.html?utm
- https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/nhs-myth-busters?utm
- https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3109?utm
- https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3108?utm
- https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2012-01-10/debates/12011048000019/NHSReorganisationCost?ut
