Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the projected slippage is against efficiency plans across integrated care systems in the current financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For 2025/26, there is an efficiency and savings target of approximately £11,076 million across all integrated care systems. At month six, the projected delivery for the year remains all but on track against the total efficiency and savings target, with a forecasted shortfall of £5.7 million.
The table below sets out the efficiencies and savings delivered by systems since 2022:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Efficiencies and savings delivered by systems (£bn) | 5.0 | 7.3 | 8.7 |
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his NHS Pay Review Body remit letter: 2026 to 2027, what the expected annual financial impact is of changes to the implementation of the NHS Job Evaluation Scheme.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This specific assessment has not been made. No recent changes have been made to the Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) itself. Some job profiles have been updated to be assessed against locally.
Following a national review by the Job Evaluation Group, the updated nursing and midwifery national profiles were republished by the NHS Staff Council on 3 June 2025. These changes did not change implementation of the JES or banding outcomes. During the evidence collection process for the nursing and midwifery national profile review, we were made aware that job documentation was often outdated, leading to concerns about pay banding outcomes through inconsistent local application of the JES.
Any financial impact will largely depend on current local job evaluation practices and subsequent application of the revised profiles. The NHS England letter titled Agenda for Change non-pay deal recommendations – NHS job evaluation, dated 3 June 2025, was clear with employers that where there is out of date practice, they are accountable for correctly implementing the scheme and must ensure that all changes are implemented effectively within existing budget constraints.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what has his department identified as the drivers of the recent trend in specialised commissioning high cost devices as noted in the NHS England Financial performance update of 22 September 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most significant driver of the growth in the expenditure noted in the financial update is an increased volume in clinical activity and the use of implantable devices to treat patients. This has been driven by the overall growth in elective activity as part of the elective care recovery programme.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what current unbudgeted pressures his Department is aware of within its spending plans.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2025 Spending Review was published on 11 June by HM Treasury and sets out departmental budgets for day‑to‑day spending until 2028/29, and until 2029/30 for capital investment. The 2025 Spending Review is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document
The Department is now underway with a financial planning exercise to allocate budgets within those financial years. Spending plans will be set out in the Main Supply Estimates when published in due course by HM Treasury.