ICBs have been asked to cut running costs by 50% with a blueprint document in May calling on them to set out how they will achieve a £18.76 per head of population operating cost envelope.

North East and North Cumbria ICB chief executive Sam Allen told a board meeting in July that plans had been put on hold due to a lack of funding with nationally redundancies expected to cost £1bn. Other ICBs have similarly paused or postponed plans.  

An NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB spokesperson today told HM: ‘The ICB is awaiting the national information needed to move forward, particularly in relation to redundancy funding arrangements. Until this clarity is provided, the ICB is not in a position to begin consultation or offer a voluntary redundancy scheme. This message has also been relayed to staff via internal communications.'

The DHSC has offered some flexibility on the £18.76 operating cost envelope to individual ICBs in order to reflect local circumstances with NHS England expected to provide further information on how the reduction should be delivered in the coming days.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We are fixing the broken health and care system we inherited through our Plan for Change, backed by an extra £26bn. But extra money alone is not enough and that's why we are tackling inefficiencies and driving up productivity in the NHS.

‘We have underlined the need for trusts and ICBs to cut bureaucracy and duplication to invest even further in the frontline, so we can support hard-working staff and deliver a better service for patients and better value for taxpayers' money.'

An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘ICBs have worked flat out to identify savings that can be reinvested back into patient care and a number of them have well-developed plans in place for redundancies which we are supporting them with.'