The Prime Minister has announced that NHS England is to be abolished to “cut bureaucracy.”
Keir Starmer said that the move would put the NHS “back at the heart of government” with Health Secretary, Wes Streeting adding that it would return to “democratic control.”
NHS England is a separate entity from the NHS and employs around 13,500 staff, including its digital divisions, which are headquartered in Leeds. When asked in today’s Q&A specifically about what impact this could have on Leeds jobs, the Prime Minister stated:
“Is it a good idea for the front line of the NHS to get rid of two sets of comms teams, two sets of strategy teams, two sets of policy teams, where people are basically doing the same thing.
“[…] That is what’s gone wrong in politics, which is an unwillingness to take difficult decisions. And that’s why we end up where we are.
“So we have to take difficult decisions. Obviously, the people in NHS England are hugely qualified, highly skilled, doing a fantastic job, and we will work with them in relation to what comes next. Of course we will, because I believe in dignity and respect at work.
“I’m not abandoning anybody in this. But I can’t look people in the eye who say I want a quicker appointment and say I could do something to help you, but I’m not going to do it, because I’m somehow fearful of making a difficult decision. I’m not going to do that. Haven’t done that in politics, I’m not going to start now.”
NHS England was set up in 2013 with the intention of giving the NHS greater autonomy and independence and operating at arms length from the government.
That was referenced in the Prime Minister’s speech in Hull today:
“I don’t see why decisions about £200bn of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arm’s length body, NHS England,” he said.
“And I can’t, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy.”
He added that some of that duplication included an NHS England communications team and a Health Department one. Starmer’s Director of Strategic Communications, James Lyons, was Head of Communications at NHS England.
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This was the headline announcement of Starmer’s plans to “reshape the state” which also included a “digital revolution” to deliver a “more agile, effective and active” UK and employing tech and AI teams to improve efficiency in public services – with 2000 TechTrack apprentices.
He said:
“No person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard.”
The TechTrack scheme will bring 2,000 apprentices into public sector departments by 2030, so that the government can “overhaul public services using tech.”
In response to today’s announcement, Tom Clougherty, Executive Director of the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“The Prime Minister is right to say that big, intrusive, and ever-expanding government is not working. Bureaucracy is strangling Britain’s economic dynamism. Welcome as today’s announcements are, however, they should only be the start of a much bigger programme of reform and liberalisation.
“Abolishing NHS England, for example, could be a good move. But if it simply translates to the Department for Health and Social Care trying to run everything itself, it won’t do any good. We need greater decentralisation and more bottom-up initiative-taking.
“Increasingly, the government is getting its rhetoric right. But its actions haven’t quite caught up. The British state is overloaded and that hurts both public services and the private sector. Changing structures might help, but ultimately government just needs to stop doing some things altogether.”
Leven Ergin, Chief Climate, Sustainability & Gen AI Strategist at Informatica added:
“Turbocharging AI adoption in Whitehall isn’t as simple as a tech and personnel pivot. It needs accurate, integrated and well-governed data, to fuel the AI engine, ensuring AI can enhance human decision making. It is this data engine that is proving to be an Achilles’ heel for many organisations wanting to turn AI adoption into impact.
“In the UK only 38%* of organisations successfully transition AI pilots into production – with nearly half citing technology limitations (43%), alongside data quality, readiness and completeness (39%), as the primary challenges holding them back.
“But it is about more than technology. The transition to an AI-enabled Government, will require the right skillsets across departments and human oversight to ensure the data powering AI is correct. That means AI-ready employees who understand how to use the technology, and this means a significant amount of training. Our research shows organisations in the UK expect this training period to typically take just over a year. Getting this right means that valuable insights won’t be left undiscovered and productivity gains can be realised.”
