HSC Budget 2025/26 – NICON Member and Partner Briefing and Discussion
The 2025/26 draft budget was agreed by the NI Executive on 19 December 2024. This budget provides £8.4bn for health and social care – a 2.6% increase in funding compared to its 2024-25 position. However, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said that this allocation will lead to a funding gap of ‘some £400 million’ for 2025/26. Our members are deeply concerned about the pressure to make £200 million savings on top of £200 million savings achieved in 2024/25 – a situation which will significantly impact on services and limit capacity to support transformation.
During this online briefing, Brigitte Worth, Director of Finance, DoH will set out an overview of the budget and Equality Impact Assessment. Eimear McCauley, Director of Finance, WHSCT will provide some initial reflections, showing how this funding level is not keeping pace with uplifts in England. Following these initial inputs, Dr Mark Taylor, will chair the discussion to invite wider comment from HSC leaders and partners. NICON will use the conversation to help shape our response to the consultation to be submitted by the 13 March 2025.
We would be delighted to welcome a range of members and partners to this brief and discussion. We look forward to seeing many of you on the day.
This session is being held as part of NICON's 'Grasping the Nettle' webinar series, which will run throughout 2025. The series will aim to build on the momentum and theme of the NICON24 conference, held in October 2024, during which we explored what nettles need to be grasped to drive progress within the health and social care system in NI.