NHS England to Be Scrapped, Cutting Thousands of Jobs to Redirect Funds to Frontline Care

Sir Keir Starmer has announced significant reforms to the healthcare system, including the abolition of NHS England, resulting in an estimated loss of approximately 9,300 jobs. The primary goal of these changes is to divert more resources directly into frontline health services and to return control of healthcare management to a democratically accountable body—the government itself rather than an independent organization.

According to Starmer, allowing an external, semi-independent body like NHS England to have authority over the NHS's substantial budget, which surpasses £150 billion annually, creates inefficiencies and hampers effective decision-making. He stressed that diverting governance and responsibility back to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would end redundancies and duplication, empowering health workers by streamlining administration and focusing more squarely on patient care.

Established as a Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation (quango) in 2013 by Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley, NHS England was originally designed to provide the health service greater independence in its daily functioning. It employs more than 15,000 people, handling budgetary responsibilities, planning, and operational oversight for healthcare in England. However, recent criticisms suggest the complexity and autonomy of NHS England have fostered bureaucratic inefficiencies and delayed improvements in care delivery.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Parliament the integration of NHS England into the DHSC would be done within two years, achieving significant reduction in administrative positions across both departments. Of the 15,300 NHS England administrative roles, half will be eliminated, alongside cuts to about half of the 3,300 DHSC positions currently focused on NHS operations. Though substantial numerically, representing an estimated combined loss of 9,300 roles, this figure still constitutes only around 0.6% of the NHS’s total workforce of 1.5 million.

Financially, these administrative job reductions alone could potentially save at least £219 million annually. However, initial restructuring will likely involve significant one-off costs such as redundancy payouts and reorganization expenses. Although exact numbers remain uncertain, Streeting expects to achieve savings around £100 million annually, with more efficient operations delivering wider annual savings of hundreds of millions of pounds going forward. The government intends to reinvest these savings directly into patient services, aiming particularly at reducing waiting times.

accelerating improvements to patient care outcomes.