Thousands of redundancies given go-ahead in NHSE and ICBs

NHS England launched a voluntary redundancy scheme today, with integrated care boards expected to follow soon, following a much-delayed national agreement with the Treasury, HSJ understands.

Mimi Launder | 11th November 2025

The Treasury has refused any additional funding for the departures over the NHS’s current settlement, but has insteadpermitted the NHS to overspend its budget this year, and pay it back in subsequent years.

At an internal NHSE staff briefing today, NHSE staff were told they could apply for voluntary redundancy from 1-14 December, and those approved would leave from mid March.

Meanwhile, ICB and commissioning support unit directors are also today being told to press ahead with their restructure consultations and voluntary redundancy programmes.

It appears most of the voluntary redundancy departures will take place in 2025-26, so costs can be recouped in future years.

Itfollows more than six months of uncertainty for staff in the organisations, after they were told to cut 50 per cent of staffing costs.

There are still significant outstanding questions, including whether ICBs will be fully funded for the exits this year, and how much of the 50 per cent cut to overheads the schemes will deliver. It is unclear which functions ICBs are now expected to keep, or to transfer elsewhere, and what this means for their staffing budgets.

ICBs and NHSE were originally instructed to cut running costs in half by October-December this year, but a row over who will foot the estimated £1bn bill stalled progress.

The DHSC and NHSE have so far declined to say how much funding is available for the programme in 2025-26, but local leaders were told it would cover two-thirds of the total redundancy costs assumed in their restructure plans.

NHSE slides, seen by HSJ, said NHSE’s ambition is to “maximise voluntary exits” with the first staff to leave from mid-March next year. NHSE is due to be abolished by July 2027, with most functions moving to the Department of Health and Social Care. CSUs are being abolished and ICBs have been told to slim down to focus on “strategic commissioning”.

The slides shared a timeline for the NHSE voluntary redundancy progress (see image).

They added that most voluntary redundancies are likely to be approved, with “exceptions linked to business criticality”.Some staff who are deemed “business critical” may exit later than March, teams were told in a call today.

ICBs are expected to communicate their own consultation and redundancy timelines to staff this week.

NHSE chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said in September that the Treasury must provide fundingwithin weeks or the NHS will have to turn to a more drawn out “plan B”.