NHS England merger

If this affects you, read about the merger process and the support we can provide you as one of our members.

NHS Digital staff will transfer over to NHS England on Wednesday 1 February 2023. Health Education England staff will transfer on Saturday 1 April 2023. Formal consultation on some of the structural changes will begin in February and March. There will be a phased timeline for all change consultations to take place by the end of September.

One aim of the merger is to reduce the overall size of NHS England by 30-40%. So, alongside the transfer of staff, a complicated organisational change process will take place. 

To date, none of the employers involved have indicated what the new structure will look like or what the final headcount reduction will be.

At the start of this process in summer 2022, the employers made clear their intention to run at least one voluntary redundancy scheme. This was only given final approval in mid-January 2023. Despite several discussions with all three employers, we and the other trade unions have not endorsed the scheme.

Here at the RCN, we believe our members are being asked to make serious decisions about their future and whether to take voluntary redundancy without sufficient time or information. Our main reasons for not endorsing the scheme are:

• The timeline for staff to decide to apply for voluntary redundancy is very short, with a closing date of 8 February 
• The lack of agreed structure for the new organisation means that staff cannot make an informed choice 
• The lack of clarity about which staff groups are in scope for the scheme 
• Clawback has been included for staff on Agenda for Change contracts, which exceeds the clawback identified for compulsory redundancy in the NHS Terms and Conditions. While this voluntary redundancy scheme is non-contractual, we would expect that the clawback terms would not vary. 
• The lack of an equality impact assessment at the time of launch 
• Individuals applying for voluntary redundancy will be expected to exit their organisation under a settlement agreement by 31 March, but we do not expect the organisational change, redeployment and redundancy process to be complete by that date.

Members working at Health Education England, if in scope for the ‘Workforce, Training & Education Directorate’, will also be involved in the organisational change process, now within HEE. 

The consultation will run alongside the Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment into NHS England. So those staff may be put at risk of redundancy in that consultation. 

Some staff will be exempt from being able to take voluntary redundancy, as their job roles are deemed business critical.  

If not enough staff apply for the voluntary redundancy scheme, there will be compulsory redundancies. These are covered by the full NHS scheme, as set out in section 16 of the NHS Terms and Conditions handbook.  

Staff taking voluntary redundancy on this scheme will not receive pay in lieu of notice. This will be subject to a clawback arrangement that is outside the Agenda for Change terms and conditions. Staff will therefore be asked to sign a settlement agreement. Read more on this below. Therefore, we encourage you to seriously consider the potential loss of earnings and take advice before applying for the voluntary redundancy scheme.

Our expert member support team are here for you.

Contact RCN Direct

The following is an extract about voluntary redundancy from NHS England’s Organisational Change process:

9.7 Any individual leaving under this scheme will be asked to enter into a legally binding settlement agreement to accept voluntary redundancy. At this point, the employee will be removed from the redeployment register (should this be applicable) and neither party can reverse their decision once the settlement agreement has been signed.