Unison attacks ‘shambolic’ announcement of NHS England’s abolition – UK politics live | Politics
Unison says handling of NHS England abolition announcement ‘shambolic’
Unison, which describes itself as the largest healthcare union in the UK, has described the announcement about the abolition of NHS England as “shambolic”. Christina McAnea, its general secretary, said:
The health service needs thousands more staff and to be able to hold on to experienced employees. At the moment, it’s struggling to do that. Giving staff a decent pay rise would help no end.
But this announcement will have left NHS England staff reeling. Just days ago they learned their numbers were to be slashed by half, now they discover their employer will cease to exist.
The way the news of the axing has been handled is nothing short of shambolic. It could surely have been managed in a more sympathetic way.
Key events
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Ed Balls says cutting benefits for most vulnerable ‘is not going to work’ and is ‘not Labour thing to do’
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More than 25% of patients in England having cancer checks have to wait more than 28 days for answers, figures show
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Leading health thinktanks say, while they can see case for abolishing NHS England, benefits for patients might be modest
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Ukraine needs guarantees as Putin’s ambitions ‘are barely disguised’, Starmer says
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Unison says handling of NHS England abolition announcement ‘shambolic’
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No 10 refuses to commit to reduction in overall number of quangos
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Peter Kyle uses ChatGPT for work research, FoI request reveals, as PM says he wants officials to use AI much more
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Former Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt praises ‘boldness’ of Starmer’s decision to axe NHS England
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Streeting tells MPs he thinks reorganisation will reduce admin for doctors
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Streeting tells MPs countless Tories told him in private they should have reversed 2012 Lansley health reforms
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Streeting tells MPs abolishing NHS England will save hundreds of millions of pounds per year
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Streeting makes statement to MPs about abolition of NHS England
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Starmer says NHS England had to go because it was duplicating work done by Department of Health
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Starmer cites NHS England abolition as example of how he won’t duck making ‘difficult decision’
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Starmer rejects call from GB News for government to scrap all equality and diversity policies
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Streeting says abolition of NHS England ‘final nail in coffin of disastrous’ 2012 Tory health reorganisation
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Government says ‘world’s largest quango’ being scrapped, in reference to NHS England
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Starmer says he is not saying ‘it’s the fault of somebody else’
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Starmer announces NHS England quango being abolished, with central government back running health service
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Starmer says parts of state ‘see their job as blocking government’ from doing what it was elected to do
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Starmer says people want state to be more effective, not bigger
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Starmer speaks on civil service reform at Q&A in Yorkshire
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Decision not to classify Southport killer as a terrorist was right, says UK watchdog
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Peter Kyle says ministers want to be disruptors, but ‘in positive way’, when asked about similarities with Elon Musk
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Hospital waiting list figure for England falls slightly for five month in row
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Keir Starmer to outline reforms of ‘overcautious, flabby state’ in civil service speech
Here is Guardian video of Wes Streeting announcing the abolition of NHS England in the Commons.
Arrests of young terror suspects across Britain have reached their highest level since 2017, PA Media reports. PA says:
Some 71 youths under 21 were arrested for terrorist-related activity in 2024, up from 69 the previous year and 60 in 2022, according to Home Office figures.
It is the highest annual number since 77 arrests in 2017, the year of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing, which left 22 dead and more than a thousand injured, along with other terror attacks that claimed lives in Westminster, London Bridge, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green in London.
The data shows that of 71 under-21s arrested last year, 32 were aged 18-20, up from 26 in 2023, while 39 were under the age of 18, down slightly year-on-year from 43.
Ed Balls says cutting benefits for most vulnerable ‘is not going to work’ and is ‘not Labour thing to do’
Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, has said the government would be wrong to cut disability benefits for the most vulnerable people in society.
He was speaking in the latest episode of Political Currency, the podcast he co-hosts with George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, who said that when he was at the Treasury he ruled out freezing Pip (the personal independence payment – a disability benefit) because he thought that was not very fair.
Next week the government is due to announce major cuts to sickness and disability benefits. The details have not not been announced, but one ITV News report last week said the Treasury wants to save up to £6bn by freezing the level at which Pip is paid (instead of uprating it in line with inflation, which normally happens with benefits), and making it harder to claim. The government wants to get more people off benefits and into work, but ITV said “even those with extreme disabilities in the unfit to work category are likely to lose money”.
Balls said:
It’s one thing to say the economy is not doing well and we’ve got a fiscal challenge … but cutting the benefits of the most vulnerable in our society who can’t work to pay for that – is not going to work. And it’s not a Labour thing to do … It’s not what they’re for.
Balls was a major figure in the Blair/Brown government, as Gordon Brown’s chief adviser and then as a cabinet minister. But he lost his seat as an MP in 2015 and he now works as a TV presenter and podcaster. He is married to Yvette Cooper, the current home secretary.
In the same episode Osborne implied that, if Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, does decide to freeze Pip, she will be acting even more harshly than he did. He said:
I didn’t freeze Pip. I thought [it] would not be regarded as very fair.
Osborne said he did try to cut eligibility for Pip in his 2016 budget, hoping to save £4bn, “which I guess, adjusting for inflation, is roughly what Labour is looking for now”. But Iain Duncan Smith, the then welfare secretary, resigned in protest, “and I had to back down”, Osborne said.
More than 25% of patients in England having cancer checks have to wait more than 28 days for answers, figures show
More than one in four patients undergoing urgent cancer checks now wait more than 28 days for the disease to be confirmed or ruled out, PA Media. In its report on the NHS England performance figures out today, PA says:
Data released today shows 73.4% of patients in England urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in January.
This is down from 78.1% the previous month and is the lowest figure since April 2024, as well as being below the government target of 75%.
The government and NHS England have set a new target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 80%.
In addition, the proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in January from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade, to their first definitive treatment for cancer was 67.3%, down from 71.3%.
The government and NHS England have set a target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%.
Elsewhere, the NHS England figures show the overall waiting list for planned hospital treatments has fallen for the fifth month in a row. (See 9.53am.)
A total of 198,868 people in England had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of January, down from 200,375 at the end of December and the lowest number since November 2020.
In addition, 73.4% of patients in A&E were seen within four hours in February, up from 73% in January.
The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted also stood at 47,623 in February, down from a record 61,529 in January.
In its own news release on today’s figures, NHS England presents a different take. It says:
NHS staff have more than halved the average wait for tests and checks since the height of the pandemic as the waiting list continues to fall, new data shows today.
Patients were waiting an average of 17 days for tests and checks in January – 43 days less than at the height of the pandemic (May 2020).
Average waits for tests are now the lowest since 2.1 weeks in February 2020.
The Health Foundation, another leading thinktank, has joined the King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust in suggesting that that the gains to be had from abolishing NHS England may not justify the disruption it will cause. (See 3.02pm.) This is from Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at foundation.
There is some logic in bringing the workings of NHS England and the government more closely together – for example, to help provide clarity to the health service on priorities for improvement. And – in reality – it is impossible to take politics out of the NHS.
But history tells us that rejigging NHS organisations is hugely distracting and rarely delivers the benefits politicians expect. Scrapping NHS England completely will cause disruption and divert time and energy of senior leaders at a time when attention should be focused on improving care for patients. It will also eat up the time of ministers, with new legislation likely needed.
Nick Davies, programme director at the Institute for Government thinktank, is also sceptical about the need to abolish NHS England. He has posted these on Bluesky.
There’s a decent case for scrapping NHS England but doing so is a major change programme that will take up substantial ministerial and official time. Hard to see how govt can do this while also making good progress on meeting the 18 week target AND the three shifts ahead of the next election.
Less than six months ago, Streeting said top-down reorganisation was the ‘last thing’ he wanted to do. What’s changed since then?
All of the problems cited have been evident for years. Why has it taken 9 months in office for Labour to make such a monumental decision?
Streeting has just told the Commons that while much of this can be done without legislation, a bill is needed. And that the whole process of merging DHSC and NHSE is likely to take 2 years. Even if it’s the right long term decision this will be hugely disruptive in the short term
Leading health thinktanks say, while they can see case for abolishing NHS England, benefits for patients might be modest
Two of the leading health thinktanks in the UK have said that, while they can see the case for abolishing NHS England, the benefits for patients might be modest
In a statement, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said:
Today’s announcement lands on the same day that NHS stats show people continue to wait days in A&E and many patients remain stuck in hospital beds despite being well enough to leave. The most important question is how will the abolition of NHS England make it easier for people to get a GP appointment, shorten waits for planned care and improve people’s health? That hasn’t yet been set out – ministers will need to explain how the prize will be worth the price.
It is absolutely right that democratically elected politicians must have clear oversight of how the NHS delivers for patients and spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money. It is also reasonable to want to deliver better value by reducing duplication and waste between two national bodies where they are performing a similar role. It is true that over its just over a decade of existence, NHS England has been asked to take on a lot more additional power, functions and therefore staff, than it was originally designed to do.
Having now made the decision to abolish NHS England, and while we still wait for the publication of the NHS 10 Year Plan, the government must be clear why this significant structural change at this time is necessary, and how it fits into their wider plans. The potential cost savings would be minimal in the context of the entire NHS budget, and so they must ensure that the changes produce the improved effectiveness which is sought by making this change.
And Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said:
Today’s news will be devastating for staff at all levels of NHS England, and we must remain mindful of the human cost of this decision. With the public finances under extraordinary pressure it does, however, make sense to remove the duplication and bureaucracy that exists currently – and patients and the public are probably not going to shed many tears over the shifting of power from an arm’s-length body into central government.
But profound problems facing the NHS remain: how to meet growing patient need in the face of spiralling waiting lists and how to invest in care closer to home with the NHS’s wider finances already underwater and social care reform in the long grass. It is not immediately clear that rearranging the locus of the power at the top will make a huge and immediate difference to these issues, which ultimately will be how patients and the public judge the government.
Here is an explainer by Denis Campbell, the Guardian’s health policy editor, about what the abolition of NHS England means in practice.
Ukraine needs guarantees as Putin’s ambitions ‘are barely disguised’, Starmer says
Keir Starmer has said that he was not entirely surprised by Russia’s apparent rejection of the US-led ceasefire proposal for Ukraine.
In an interview with the News Agents podcast (perhaps he too consulted ChatGPT about the best podcasts to appear on – see 1.08pm), Starmer said:
Well, firstly, keep our focus on a lasting and secure peace in Ukraine, which is what we all want.
It doesn’t entirely surprise me that Russia is taking this stance. They’ve made it pretty clear. They put it in lights a number of times over.
I think progress was made on Tuesday, and I always felt that and hoped that out of Tuesday that would put the ball in the Russian court, if you like, where the pressure would come on Russia. That has now happened.
That is a good thing, because Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the country that where there had been previous deals and agreements, [it] has not honoured those.
We know that Putin has ambitions that are barely disguised.
The News Agents have posted the clip online. The full interview will be available later.
Jakub Krupa has more on what Starmer said on Ukraine in his Europe live blog, which today is largely focused on the Ukraine story.
Unison says handling of NHS England abolition announcement ‘shambolic’
Unison, which describes itself as the largest healthcare union in the UK, has described the announcement about the abolition of NHS England as “shambolic”. Christina McAnea, its general secretary, said:
The health service needs thousands more staff and to be able to hold on to experienced employees. At the moment, it’s struggling to do that. Giving staff a decent pay rise would help no end.
But this announcement will have left NHS England staff reeling. Just days ago they learned their numbers were to be slashed by half, now they discover their employer will cease to exist.
The way the news of the axing has been handled is nothing short of shambolic. It could surely have been managed in a more sympathetic way.
