MiP has criticised proposals by Blackpool Victoria Hospital to cut managers’ pay as part of a £500,000 restructuring of the trust’s management jobs.
Managers in Bands 6, 7 and 8 have been told that their jobs are being reviewed as part of a 30-day consultation on proposals to move some posts down by one pay grade and remove all non-clinical roles at Band 8A.
The plans have prompted concern among MiP members at Blackpool, who say morale is already extremely low following a period of significant financial and operational pressure.
The trust says the changes are needed to “strengthen accountability, improve decision-making and make sure our services are aligned to the way patients receive their care”, adding that only a small number of the 144 roles under review would be affected.
But MiP chief executive Jon Restell warned the savings would come at a high price. “Forcing staff to take pay cuts is no way to balance the books. It harms morale at a time of extraordinary financial and operational pressure, risks undermining the trust’s ability to deliver safe services and puts further pressure on already stretched clinical teams, he said.
“Moving jobs to a lower pay band does not make the responsibilities disappear,” he added. “The trust needs to be clear about what work will continue and what work will stop.”
With trusts under intense pressure to reduce spending, MiP has warned that management cuts are “going under the radar”, with providers across England planing to axe at least 21,000 posts by 2028.
“These cuts in hospitals are going through with little to no scrutiny, but could have disastrous consequences for local services,” Restell said. “Weakening hospital management shifts operational duties onto already stretched clinical teams—taking them away from treating patients.”
He warned that combined with cuts to ICBs and the abolition of NHS England, the reduction of management capacity in the NHS “will only lead to less efficient services and greater burnout of clinical staff”.
He added: “If the government wants to improve services for patients, it needs a credible, fully resourced plan for NHS management at all levels and to stop treating managers as a cost to be cut.” //
MiP says regulation alone will not improve the NHS culture around raising and acting on concerns, following the findings of the Thirlwall Inquiry into the Lucy Letby case.
TUC Congress has backed a motion calling for an evidence-based and fully resourced plan for NHS management, with unions warning that cutting management capacity risks shifting essential work onto clinical teams.
The Scottish Government has announced plans to radically restructure the NHS, replacing Scotland’s 14 territorial health boards with two new ‘Strategic Health Boards’ covering the west and east of the country.
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