Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes health authority staff set to be offered voluntary redundancy
Health authority staff within the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) are being offered voluntary redundancy, as the first stage towards a sweeping 50 per cent staffing reduction imposed by Government, a meeting heard.
BLMK ICB is due to be legally dissolved as an organisation by April 2026 and absorbed into Central East ICB, Luton Borough Council’s health and wellbeing board was told.
“It’s part of the national change programme, in response to Government policy,” explained BLMK director of neighbourhood health place and partnerships Maria Wogan.
“In March, ICBs were asked to plan to reduce their running costs by 50 per cent.
“That means we’ve delivered those savings by the end of the financial year and start in April on half of the running costs from 12 months earlier.
“The ICB will still need to fulfil its statutory functions. Most of our expenditure as an ICB is our staffing.
“We’re reviewing our staff structure, and are out to consultation with our staff until January 12.
“There’s a voluntary redundancy offer out at the moment. Employees who opt for this will probably leave by the end of March at the latest. It’s a very difficult time for our staff.
“There’ll be one team working across the BLMK footprint, rather than the four place teams within our current structure as an ICB.
“Our role is very much in the commissioning space and understanding what are the population’s health needs.
“We’ve a requirement to produce a neighbourhood health plan that would be signed off by this board around June 2026. There would be a specific section for the Luton place and the other three places within BLMK.
“A blueprint for ICBs was published around what the model ICB functions should be,” she added. “There’s a big emphasis on ICBs working as strategic commissioners and being data driven in the way they deliver their business.
“Addressing inequalities is still a core function of the ICB. We need to understand where our greatest inequalities lie, and ensure our plans seek to address that and deliver greater equality for our population.”
Luton Borough Council’s director of public health Kelly O’Neill acknowledged: “This is such a significant restructure so soon after the previous one.
“We’ve really valued the representation of ICB staff on many of our boards and our panels, as well as for public health on key partnership boards, such as health protection.
“Without that partnership, we may have problems in delivering some of our core and statutory functions. Fundamentally, having the National Health Service represented is going to be really key.
“It would be good once the initial process has trickled out to allow us to see some of the staffing model and have a conversation about likely representation on those core groups.”
Ms Wogan replied: “I’d really welcome that. It would be good to run through it to ensure we’ve not missed anything. There’ll be no reduction in resources going to primary care providers.”
Labour High Town councillor Umme Ali said: “It’s a very difficult job to do a 50 per cent reduction. I hope the Government is listening. I’m sure you’ll do your best to make certain we all obtain the right services.”