Changes to the NHS in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire – 2 May update

 

Update as of 2 May 2025

In our last update, we shared a link to the letter that all NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Trusts and Foundation Trusts received from NHS England, outlining further detail of how we will work together to lay the foundations for reform. This included an expectation that ICBs would be required to reduce running costs by 50%.

Since then, all ICB finance directors have received indicative figures from NHS England providing further detail relating to ICB running and programme costs reduction targets. Our Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB indicative figure is that we need to make a saving of £12.6 million from our £33 million total spend.

We will share more on the figures as they are confirmed, but we believe this will be an extremely challenging ask for our ICB as it stands. There is a need for urgent clarity on movement of functions between different parts of the NHS and also how legislation will be planned to potentially reduce the number of ICB statutory duties.

We know that ICBs will need to work on larger footprints in the future to meet these savings targets and we are continuing to engage in both national and regional meetings to understand how these potential changes could work.

What next

We are expecting to receive information from NHS England imminently regarding the ICB model or ‘blueprint’. This will build on the letter previously shared by NHS England and will help define the role and purpose of ICBs and set out the high-level functions.

Once this model/blueprint is received, ICBs will be expected to use this information to create bottom-up plans within the finances available. These plans will need to be ready for sign-off by NHS England Regional Directors by 31 May.

A further regional meeting for all South West ICB Chief Executives is due to take place next week to discuss ways of working and potential ICB footprints.

We are also anticipating further detail regarding a national voluntary redundancy scheme to be shared in the coming weeks from NHS England. This offer will be the same across the whole of the country.

We will continue to publish further developments on our website on a fortnightly basis.