NHS Confederation responds to NHS England leadership changes
It has been announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will be reduced significantly, with as many as 50 per cent of NHS England posts expected to be removed, as both bodies work more closely together.
Alongside this, it has been confirmed that Julian Kelly (Chief Financial Officer), Dame Emily Lawson (Chief Operating Officer) and Steve Russell (Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccination and Screening) have all decided to step down from NHS England in the coming weeks.
In response, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“These changes are happening at a scale and pace not anticipated to begin with, but given the huge savings that the NHS needs to make this year it makes sense to reduce areas of duplication at a national level and for the NHS to be led by a leaner centre.
“NHS England has already delivered significant savings and helped to deliver improvements in productivity, but national bodies and local NHS leaders know that more is needed this year.
“These changes represent the biggest reshaping of the NHS’s national architecture in more than a decade. It is important that local NHS organisations and other bodies are involved in this transformation as the immediate next steps become clearer, so that an optimum operating model can be created.
“This must be about doing things differently for the benefit of local communities as both patients and taxpayers, as well as for staff ahead of annual survey results on Thursday that are yet again expected to show the extreme challenges they face.
“On behalf of our members, our thanks go to Dr Emily Lawson, Julian Kelly and Steve Russell for their leadership of the NHS during what continues to be a highly turbulent time. They have been at the heart of NHS England’s drive to improve productivity and other major developments, including delivering a hugely successful vaccination programme at the time of Covid-19. We look forward to working with Sir Jim Mackey and Dr Penny Dash as they formally take up their posts of chief executive chair at the start of April.”
