Plans put forward to 'cluster' Northamptonshire care board with other counties in bid to cut costs

The Northamptonshire ICB, which is in charge of planning and commissioning health services for the area, was told in April that it must reduce its running costs by nearly a third by the end of this year.

Northamptonshire and Leicestershire and Rutland ICBs have announced they will cluster together as part of plans to reduce costs.

Managers in Partnership (MiP), a union that represents managers in the NHS, has said ICB job losses will damage the local economy and make it harder for the NHS to offer skilled jobs to local people. It has also criticised the speed of the cuts for causing “chaos” and uncertainty.

The Northants care board has said it would not be viable as a stand-alone ICB as a result of the fast-approaching job losses. Despite plans to cluster with nearby colleagues to sustain the service, millions of pounds in savings are still required and a number of jobs will still be axed.

Many other care boards nationally have also outlined plans for mergers to manage the reduction in running costs.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it is “cutting back on unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication” in ICBs to reinvest in frontline services.

‘Causing chaos’

The chief executive of MiP, Jon Restell, said that the cuts will lead to a huge loss in managerial skills, bring the planning of NHS services further away from the areas they represent, and “risk severely undermining the government’s ambitions of saving money and cutting waiting lists”.

He said: “The government’s massive gamble to cut half of the ICB workforce was taken without any plan or assessment of what new structures need to do. Three months on from that decision there is still no sign of the Ten Year Health Plan and still no national mechanism to make staff redundant.

“The speed of the cuts, to be made by the end of the year, is causing chaos. ICBs still have legal duties to fulfil, such as continuing healthcare, special educational needs and emergency planning. But they must cut their people now without knowing what’s expected of them in the future.

“It leaves staff without enough time for meaningful consultation with their employer. Our members can’t make informed decisions about their futures and the strain on them makes it hard to focus on the public’s NHS priorities.”

Clustering plans the ‘only way’

At an Integrated Care Partnership meeting this month, it was revealed that proposals were submitted to NHS England in May to consider a Leicester, Northamptonshire, Rutland (LNR) ICB cluster to help balance the cost reduction and reduce waste.

According to a headcount taken in March 2025, there were just over 200 staff at the Northamptonshire ICB and around 330 in Leicestershire and Rutland. In total, £16.7 million in savings need to be made from the areas’ combined £53 million running costs.

With each ICB being asked to cut running costs by around 30 percent, redundancies are likely to be in the hundreds.

At the meeting, Northants ICB chief executive Toby Sanders explained that the reduction in running costs would likely eliminate about a third of its staff by the December 2025 deadline. He added that the “only way” to sustain that scale of running costs would be to work much more closely with colleagues to the north.

“All the direction of travel is right but getting there is really really hard,” he said.

“I’m really committed to supporting the brilliant staff we have and we’ve got to do it in the best way. At the moment, I’ve got 500 staff that are sat frankly terrified about whether they’re going to be able to pay their mortgage or help their children through university.

“For me, my job here is to lead us through this as quickly as we can and get some direction.”

The LNR plans would not constitute a formal merger, but would see single management teams established across the region and the sharing of some functions to reduce duplication of work.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government has invested an extra £26 billion in our NHS to cut waiting times for patients. At the same time, we are cutting back on unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication across the health service – including in ICBs – so that we can reinvest the savings in the frontline.

“The Secretary of State is considering a range of options but no final decisions have been made.”

Northamptonshire ICB has been contacted for comment.