![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4_121019arndale14.jpg\")
(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\nAs many as 400 NHS employees in Greater Manchester will be made redundant by April \u2013 but health bosses say they’re being left in an ‘impossible situation’ as the government has refused to approve a voluntary redundancy scheme(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
As many as 400 NHS employees in Greater Manchester will be made redundant by April, the region\u2019s health chiefs have confirmed.<\/p>\n
But health bosses, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>, have railed against the government, saying they are stuck in an \u2018impossible situation\u2019 as the government \u2018will not approve\u2019 plans for a voluntary redundancy scheme.<\/p>\n The leaders say it\u2019s \u2018impossible\u2019 to make the deep cuts being demanded by the government without voluntary redundancies. But they say they have no way of starting that process without government funding, which is currently being denied.<\/p>\n The figures come after the government announced in spring that the country\u2019s 42 regional health boards, responsible for planning and paying for health care services, will have to lose around half of their 25,000 staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, NHS<\/a> Greater Manchester, the region\u2019s oversight body, was told to cut its costs by 39 per cent and save \u00a341 million from its \u00a3106m staff budget under the government\u2019s reforms.<\/p>\n Get news, views and analysis of the biggest stories with the daily Mancunian Way newsletter – sign up here<\/a><\/p>\n On Friday, NHS Greater Manchester leaders told the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership board meeting that as many as 400 staff could be made redundant by April 1 2026.<\/p>\n Chair of the organisation, Sir Richard Leese, said: \u201cWe currently find ourselves in a situation that\u2019s almost beyond belief. We\u2019re in a very Kafka-esque situation as an ICB.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the requirements placed upon all ICBs was to reduce their costs. Not just management costs, programme costs as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re expected to reduce our costs by 39 per cent. That equates to somewhere between three to four hundred staff. This has to be in place by April 1 of next year before the budget provision for all of that is removed and it goes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt effectively means, in absolute terms, the only employee of the ICB who can guarantee to still have a post is the chief executive.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a dreadful position for our staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to deal with that. Positive work has gone into proposals for new structures that offer a positive way forward, they have to be underpinned by how we reduce staffing in a way that is fair.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Richard Leese told the board that the region\u2019s NHS wants to launch a proposed voluntary redundancy scheme in September \u2013 but is being hamstrung by the government.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no other realistic way of getting down to that running cost target without a successful voluntary redundancy scheme,\u201d Sir Richard told the board.<\/p>\n \u201cIt cannot be done without.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were hoping to agree how we might fund that voluntary redundancy scheme and submit a proposal in the very near future for approval by the DHSC and Treasury.<\/p>\n \u201cWe received a letter this week, we have been told in writing, basically, if we submit a scheme it will not be approved at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue with the planning process, we will continue to make sure that we are ready.<\/p>\n “But we, effectively, have been told that we have to reduce our staff but we\u2019re told that we will have no device in supporting you in doing that. Which is why I describe the situation as Kafka-esque.<\/p>\n \u201cWe currently face an impossible situation.\u201d<\/p>\n After the sweeping NHS cuts were announced earlier this year, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was asked by MPs whether he recognised a reported figure that the total cost of redundancy payouts could reach \u00a31bn nationally.<\/p>\n He said that it was too early to know the precise numbers, but that \u00a31bn was not an ‘unreasonable ballpark figure’<\/a>.<\/p>\n Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who is also the co-chair of the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, agreed with Sir Richard.<\/p>\n He told the board meeting: \u201cI have expressed solidarity with the staff in this position who are still doing critically important jobs in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers that have been come up with, what relation has been made to the crucial roles that the people affected by this are doing?<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel to me that it\u2019s been done in the right way. Consequently, people are in a limbo period that must be very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Burnham said Greater Manchester will have to make decisions that fit the complexities of a region disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to serious illnesses and health care funding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will, in the end, do what\u2019s right for us \u2013 irrespective in some ways of what filters out from the national level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will always, as a system, do the best we can to support people, [and to] make sure the value of people\u2019s roles is understood.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Monkeypox.jpg\")
NHS Greater Manchester employs 1,400 staff in the region(Image: PA)<\/p>\n![\"Wes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Health-Secretary-Wes-Streeting-held-talks-with-drug-companies-Jordan-PettittPA.jpg\")
Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested that redundancy payouts for the sweeping NHS cuts across the country being demanded by the government could reach \u00a31bn(Image: PA Wire\/PA Images)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Launch-of-the-new-Stockport-Interchange.jpg\")
(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n