Jo Williams, group chief executive, said compulsory redundancies ‘will always be a last resort' and would be kept ‘as small as possible'.

The group, which last year delivered its financial plan for the first time in 10 years, is seeking to reduce workforce costs in a number of ways, including: natural vacancy reduction; reducing bank and agency spend; redeployment, as well as new skills and learning opportunities; and a voluntary redundancy scheme.

Made up of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) and Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (SCHT), the group is investing £29m in services in 2026/27 and plans to continue to recruit roles essential to providing safe, patient care.

It is working to achieve £44.3m efficiencies in 2026/27 and has delivered £16.6m so far, more than ever before at this point in the financial year.

The group delivered £47m in efficiencies in 2025/26 (SaTH £41.4m and SCHT £5.6m), more than double 2023/24 when £23.3m was delivered (SaTH £18.8m and SCHT £4.5m), and more than four times as much as 2022/23 when £9.8m was delivered (SaTH £8.2m and SCHT £1.6m).

SaTH has reduced its deficit from £100m in 2023/24 to £45.1m in 2025/26 and has an agreed deficit plan with NHS England to reach financial balance by 2029/2030.