Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of redundancies there will be as a result of the reorganisation of integrated care boards in Dorset.

Proposed changes to integrated care board (ICB) functions and geography are being discussed as part of a wider National Health Service reform programme, to reduce management costs and focus more money on the front line.

All ICBs in England are being asked to significantly reduce running costs and shift to a more strategic role, with different responsibilities. Specifically, ICBs have been asked to reduce pay costs by approximately 50%.

It is too early to predict the impact of potential redundancy numbers. The Dorset ICB is discussing proposals to form a wider ICB “cluster” with neighbouring colleagues at the NHS Somerset ICB and the NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire ICB.

Clustering will allow the ICBs to realise efficiencies, releasing resources for frontline care, while maintaining teams of sufficient size in order to be resilient and specialised.