Changes to the NHS in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire – 25 June update

 

Update as of 25 June

We have now received a letter from NHS England confirming that the cluster proposals aligned to the new ICB geographies in the South West submission have been formally agreed by NHS England’s Executive and Ministers.

For the South West region, the agreed clusters are:

  1. Gloucestershire and Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire
  2. BSW (Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon & Wiltshire), Somerset, and Dorset
  3. Cornwall & Isles of Scilly and Devon

Next steps

This means we now have national support to move forward on this basis, with the next steps being to appoint a cluster Chair and Chief Executive.

NHS England have now shared the draft job descriptions for these roles and the NHS England Regional Director will be speaking with existing Chairs in the coming days to discuss leadership and transition support required in the coming months.

With the cluster approach now agreed, our ICBs will begin working more closely together under transitional arrangements including gradually developing joint governance arrangements. We will also continue with the sharing of information and approaches across teams, so that we maintain our delivery focus and secure the strengths and successes we have evidenced across both organisations.
The whole transition process will be overseen by a Joint Transition Committee made up of Executive and Non-Executive Directors drawn from both organisations.

Once the Chair and Chief Executive appointments have been made, an Executive structure for the cluster will be developed and detailed work will progress on the functions and structures of the new organisation.

We want to ensure we get things right and have the best possible arrangements in place for the people of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire now and into the future. We will also need to consider emerging national and regional models and work closely with the NHS England regional team and providers who may take on some key functions in the future.

As we have continued to say, whilst the overall pace of change is rapid, these changes do take time. We do not expect that the leadership team will be able to consult staff on structures until later in the summer at the earliest. When it does consult, there will be a commitment to ensure everyone has enough time to consider the information and feedback in line with our organisational change policies.

We will continue to publish further developments on our website on a regular basis. All of the previous briefings and updates that have been written about NHS Changes can be found on our NHS Changes webpage.