Derbyshire NHS budgets to be slashed

More than 550 Derbyshire NHS staff could lose their jobs in a bid to cut budgets by more than £180 million.

Derbyshire’s NHS organisations are facing budget cuts over the next year totalling £181.7 million and part of those aims will include trimming 1.8 per cent of its workforce, health reports and officials detail.

More than 30,700 people work for Derbyshire’s NHS, across six different organisations along with GPs, dentists and other providers, NHS reports say, with job cuts to equate to 553 staff set to lose their jobs over the next year.

Officials say they aim to make these job cuts through not recruiting to vacant posts (unless essential for patient safety) and reducing staff sickness absence, pledging to “do everything possible to avoid redundancies”.

The cuts will also see a 30% cutback in money spent on agency staff and 10% on bank staff spending, who fill gaps in rotas, often in the evenings or at weekends, and are frequently fulfilled by existing staff doing overtime. Bank and agency staff have previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that they rely on these extra shifts to cover their bills, in lieu of salary increases.

This year the Derbyshire NHS is spending £49 million on bank staff and £21.8 million on agency staff, with officials detailing “bank or agency staff are not substantive employees and therefore are not subject to redundancy”.

In total, the Derbyshire NHS has a combined budget of £3.95 billion, with the proposed £180 million in cutbacks equating to 4.6 per cent of its total annual spending power – against an aim to make five per cent in savings.

These cutbacks follow £170 million in “savings” required and carried out by the Derbyshire NHS last year.

The plans include significant multi-million-pound budget cuts at:

• University Hospitals of Derby and Burton Foundation Trust – £67 million
• NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board – £44 million
• Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – £21.9 million
• Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust – £17 million
• East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust – £16.9 million
• Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – £14.8 million

This follows the publication of the Labour Government’s “working together in 2025/26 to lay the foundations for reform” paper in April.

This will see NHS England scrapped and merged into the Department of Health and Social Care – under direct Government control.

Changes also include the halving of budgets for integrated care boards – which oversee NHS services across the county and city – and halving of corporate costs which includes pay and pensions.

Selina Ullah, chair of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, wrote in a recent board report that “the NHS has been in considerable turmoil”, adding: “It is a time of uncertainty in the NHS and it is important that there is ongoing communications with staffside representatives.

“NHS Providers, as the representative body for provider trusts, has been busy to understand the likely impact on the delivery of services, workforce and safety in order to advocate on behalf of providers.”

Mark Powell, the trust’s chief executive, said: “There has been a significant number of changes proposed to the way the NHS is going to operate in the future. 

“The significant changes highlight the immense financial and operational pressures facing the NHS and will have an impact on how we work as a trust and across Derbyshire with our partners. 

“Stabilising the NHS in the short term and prioritising patient care will be essential, finding the balance between recovery and reform.”

Julie Houlder, chair of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said in a recent board meeting that it was a “really uncertain time for people”.

Meanwhile, Jim Austin, the trust’s chief executive, said: “It is a very testing time in the NHS at the moment. We have significant financial challenges to meet.

“We are living in a land of uncertainty. There is a lot of change out there and change will cause uncertainty and fear.

“There is still quite a lot of unpacking to do and the pace that announcements are coming out will drive uncertainty and we still do not have definitive answers.

“We are here to cut our cloth accordingly, we have got to take on that burden. We will all have to stand into that space.”

Papers from the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board detail there is a “very high” risk “that the system is not able to maintain an affordable and sustainable workforce supply pipeline and to retain staff through a positive staff experience”.

It details that “all this planned improvement will be delivered with a smaller workforce and less expenditure”. 

Stephen Posey, chief executive of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, wrote in a recent board report: “The NHS – alongside other public sector services – is being asked to take proactive steps at pace to improve its efficiency, both in terms of performance for the patients and communities it serves, and in reducing spend.

“As one of the largest NHS trusts in the country we have a real responsibility around that commitment.

“It is clear that delivery will not be easy; our financial envelope this year is the most challenging we have seen, and while we support the ambitious national productivity and performance asks as they will impact on our patients, they are stretching.”

Chris Clayton, NHS Derby and Derbyshire chief executive, said: “The NHS in Derby and Derbyshire has operated with finite financial resources for many years.

“Our priority is and has always been to continue delivering high quality care and improvements for patients but we also know that all parts of our system must live within their available means.

“Last year we made improvements to areas such as cutting waiting lists, reducing response times and better access to GPs, whilst achieving £170m worth of financial efficiencies across our system.

“This year we will deliver further healthcare improvements and manage within the financial resources available.

“We can do this thanks to the hard work, dedication and innovation of colleagues across our system.”