Agenda item

1.     Ms Rachel Hewett (Director of Strategy and Partnerships, NHS Kent and Medway) said that the report briefed the Committee on changes underway within NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) as part of structural reform to the NHS across England. In particular, the paper updated on the requirement for ICBs to make a 50% reduction in their operating costs by December 2025. The ICB programme to reduce these operating costs was locally known as the ‘Change-25’ programme.

2.     Ms Hewett clarified that the reduction affected the running costs of the organisation, which included predominantly the workforce and pay budget, but not the costs of direct patient care and frontline services. Therefore, this reduction had no impact on frontline services.

3.     The organisation was working to develop a new internal operating model but was also working across the South-East region with other ICBs, as there were opportunities for economies of scale. It was also liaising with other local authorities to identify opportunities for joint commissioning.

4.     The ICB was making sure that there was a strong support offer for its staff, with significant focus around wellbeing. It also collaborated with external organisations to offer career coaching and support for staff with job searching.

5.     In reply to a question about the criteria employed to manage staff reductions, Ms Hewett said that smaller reductions would affect mainly those teams that were not directly dealing with frontline services.

6.     A main focus of the ICB in its strategic commissioning role was understanding local population health need and how best to respond locally. It was important to have a strong governance approach, bringing together all the key partner organisations within one system.

7.     In answer to a question about the structural shape that the ICB would take in the future, Ms Hewett said that this was still unknown. However, a regional blueprint had been recently produced that gave an idea of what NHS England’s regional responsibilities would be.

8.     A Member asked whether voluntary resignation and redundancy would come mainly from administrative staff or frontline staff.

a       Ms Hewett replied that there was no set profile or estimate on where voluntary redundancies or resignations would mainly come from.

9.     Mr Ed Waller (Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer and Interim Chief Delivery Officer, NHS Kent and Medway) clarified that there were two separate funding streams. One was the funding for the running costs of the ICB as an organisation, which was the main focus of the paper. Most of the running costs were about staff who dealt with the commissioning, planning and purchase of services, though there were other staff who had a more patient-facing role.

10.  This funding was separate from the spend that the ICB made on clinical frontline services. However, this process did have an impact on the ICB because there would be only half the current staff to plan and buy services, although this did not affect the provision of services such as those in hospitals, mental health trusts, community trusts, GPs and dentists.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.