More than £25m has been saved by ICBs through redundancies since they were set up in July 2022 a Healthcare Leader investigation has revealed.
In total 437 people were made redundant, the majority (56%) of which were as a result of voluntary redundancy from roles including managers, midwives, director of nursing and community practitioners, out of a total workforce of 23,409.
This represents 2.3% saving of the total running costs of ICBs which was set to £1.1bn for 2023/24 and which ICBs were tasked with cutting by 30% with at least 20% of that to be delivered in 2024/25.
The bulk of this saving from redundancies has been made in the last financial year (2023/24) with more than £20m (£20,157,021) being saved and a total of £25,173,914 cost savings as a result of redundancies reported by ICBs between July 2022 and April 2024.
A freedom of information (FOI) request from Healthcare Leader, to which all 42 ICBs responded, asked ICBs to provide the amount of cost savings they had seen following both voluntary and compulsory redundancies since they were set up and across the most recent financial year (2023/24).
Out of the 25 ICBs who answered the question, the ICB which saved the most money via redundancies during the past financial year was Mid and South Essex with £4.2m cost savings in 2023/24. It reported none in the first year of operation as it stated any redundancies in this period were as a result of the move from clinical commissioning groups to ICBs.
The next two highest cost savings were reported by North East and North Cumbria ICB with £3.6m and Kent and Medway with £2.2m. Eight ICBs said they had made no cost savings via redundancies in the same year. A further nine said the question was ‘not applicable’ or that there were no redundancies made.
Of the remaining seven ICBs, Suffolk and North East Essex said although there have been redundancies in the last quarter of 2023/24, the cost savings of these had not yet been realised.
Somerset ICB and Birmingham and Solihull ICB said the figures were intended for future publication so were exempt from the request.
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ICB gave a total cost savings figure of £814,000 for between when the ICB was set up and when the FOI was sent, however they did not break this down under the parameters we asked for.
Greater Manchester meanwhile said: ‘Compulsory redundancies occur where no role exists in the organisation for an employed individual. Where no role exists, no budget is assigned to the role, and as such, no saving can be made.’
West Yorkshire said no savings were made during the 2023/24 period and that those in 2022-24 were only a result of the 30% requested savings. Northamptonshire similarly said no savings were made as a result of redundancies in both years, and although posts were changed between 2022-24 this did not release cost savings as it was part of an organisational restructure.
Consultations
The investigation also found that ICBs have undertaken at least 94 redundancy consultations across the system, nine of which were recorded as either across the whole ICB organisation or with the ‘majority of staff’.
As a result, ICBs reported making 437 roles redundant altogether between 2022 and 2024, 369 of those happening within the 2023/24 financial year. Though two of the redundancies made at Surrey Heartlands ICB were defined as not being part of a consultation process.
Of the redundancies in 2023/24, 246 of them were voluntary, our investigation found.
Over the past financial year, Mid and South Essex and North East and North Cumbria were the ICBs who made the highest number of redundancies, with 73 and 64 redundancies respectively. This was followed by Bath and North East Somerset with 42, 32 of which were voluntary.
A spokesperson for Mid and South Essex ICB said: ‘NHS Mid and South Essex undertook an organisational change programme from May 2023 – December 2023 that saw around 100 staff leave the ICB because of voluntary resignation, voluntary redundancy, and compulsory redundancy.
‘The cost saving of £4.2m (being the difference between the ICB running costs incurred in 23/24 and the ICB running cost allocation in 24/25) is a result of the national requirement for ICBs to reduce running costs by 30% by 2025/26, with at least 20% to be delivered in 2024/25.’
A spokesperson for Bath and North East Somerset ICB said: ‘As part of the national directive for all ICBs to reduce their running costs, BSW ICB ran a voluntary redundancy scheme.
‘This supported colleagues across our organisation to take control of their future career choices and to ensure that we were able to keep compulsory redundancy numbers to a minimum.
‘As with many other ICBs, we have made a small number of compulsory redundancies and have ensured that we have supported colleagues throughout this process.’ But despite reporting 44 redundancies, it said there had been ‘no cost savings to date’.
However, this question of how many redundancies were made was only answered fully by 26 ICBs. Eight ICBs said they were exempt from the question, either because there were too few redundancies and the individuals involved might be able to be identified, or due to the information already being in the public domain.
A further four detailed voluntary redundancies but did not include these in the overall question on how many redundancies they made over the 2023/24 period. These were North Central London, with 84 voluntary redundancies, Norfolk and Waveney with 21, plus three unspecified, Devon with 17, plus three unconfirmed, and Hertfordshire and West Essex with three.
Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB said this figure was because the voluntary redundancies had been agreed within the financial year, but had not happened yet.
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes said they had eight ‘successful applicants’ to their voluntary redundancy scheme, but they classed them as ‘not made redundant but entered into mutual agreements to end their employment’.
Nine ICBs stated that they had not made any redundancies over the financial year.
Five also stated they were currently running a voluntary redundancy scheme when the FOI was answered, including Devon, Humber and North Yorkshire, Surrey Heartlands, Sussex and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICBs.
In September, Healthcare Leader revealed that Greater Manchester had seen the highest fall in its overall staff numbers from its integrated care system between 2023 and 2024.
However, only seven of these roles were redundancies, according to the FOI data.
Coventry and Warwickshire, Kent and Medway, West Yorkshire, North East and North Cumbria, ICBs were contacted for comment.
The FOI was issued on 2 May and all responses were received by 26 July.
| ICB | Cost savings from redundancies July 2022 – April 2024 | Total redundancies July 2022 – April 2024 |
| North East and North Cumbria | £4,624,000 | 73 |
| Mid and South Essex | £4,200,000 | 82 |
| Coventry and Warwickshire | £2,539,470 | 43 |
| Kent and Medway | £2,423,988 | 28 |
| Devon | £1,929,420 | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked for |
| North East London | £1,887,993 | 23 |
| South Yorkshire | £1,212,000 | 24 |
| Dorset | £1,155,483 | 13 |
| Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes | £965,117 | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked for |
| North Central London | £950,000 | Did not provide a figure |
| Lancashire and South Cumbria | £860,912 | 8 |
| The Black Country | £563,972 | Did not provide a figure |
| Humber and North Yorkshire | £431,000 | Did not provide figure |
| Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | £351,526 | 4 |
| Nottingham and Nottinghamshire | £250,000 | Did not provide a figure |
| Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent | £200,199 | Did not provide a figure |
| Frimley | £186,000 | Did not provide a figure |
| Surrey Heartlands | £152,000 | 2 |
| Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin | £145,000 | 2 |
| Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire | £126,000 | 23 |
| Norfolk and Waveney | £19,833 | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked for |
| Hertfordshire and West Essex | £0 | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked for |
| Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire | £0 | 44 |
| Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West | £0 | Did not provide a figure |
| Sussex | £0 | Did not provide a figure |
| South East London | £0 | 0 |
| West Yorkshire | Did not provide a figure | 40 |
| Greater Manchester | Did not provide a figure | 21 |
| Hampshire and the Isle of Wight | Not applicable | 7 |
| Cheshire and Merseyside | Not applicable | 0 |
| Derby and Derbyshire | Not applicable | 0 |
| Gloucestershire | Not applicable | 0 |
| Herefordshire and Worcestershire | Not applicable | 0 |
| Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland | Not applicable | 0 |
| Lincolnshire | Not applicable | 0 |
| North West London | No redundancies were made | 0 |
| South West London | Not applicable | 0 |
| Birmingham and Solihull | Did not provide a figure | Did not provide a figure |
| Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked | Did not provide a figure |
| Northamptonshire | No cost savings were made as the post was changed in organisation restructure | Did not provide a figure |
| Somerset | Did not provide a figure | Did not provide a figure |
| Suffolk and North East Essex | No savings have been realised | Did not provide a figure within parameters asked for |
| TOTAL | £25,173,914 | 437 |
