Agenda item

25.1     Ashley Scarff provided an update from NHS Sussex regarding national and local changes to the NHS, including some service changes. This included the following updates:

• Following the decision to merger NHS Sussex and Surrey Heartlands from April 2026, the new Chair of the ICB and Chief Executive were appointed from 1 October and the first public joint board meeting between NHS Sussex and Surrey Heartlands had been held.
• There will be a national funding mechanism in place to facilitate the redundancy scheme resulting from the merger, and in line with other ICBs, voluntary redundancy was being offered to staff. A further redundancy programme would take place following the merger in April 2026.
• The ICB were reviewing planning and commissioning intentions for 2026-27, including the localisation of the 10-year plan for health.
• The ICB were moving from a 12-month planning cycle to a 5-year planning cycle, to make more strategic plans for the medium-term.
• NHS England had published its Strategic Commissioning Framework, which clarified the remit of the ICB in its reduced capacity, and the increasing role of providers in commissioning services.

25.2     The Committee asked for an update on Integrated Community Teams and on the merger of the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) and the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

25.3     Ashley Scarff responded that an update regularly is given to the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board about Integrated Community Teams, so information about this was in the public domain. He added that SECAmb would likely want to be involved with any future updates to the HOSC about changes to their service.

25.4     The Committee asked if the voluntary redundancies would be frontline or back room staff.

25.5     Ashley Scarff responded that the ICB is largely not a frontline workforce, but frontline capacity was being ringfenced by the ICB where appropriate to protect those jobs that did exist where possible. The ICB did not anticipate frontline job losses, this would likely be in management and back room staff.

25.6     The Committee expressed concerns about future staff losses impacting working relationships with the ICB and asked how the ICB was ensuring continued engagement with the VCSE sector.

25.7     Ashley Scarff responded that the ICB have been holding vacancies for a number of months to downsize in a more managed way. The ICB were assembling an executive team and assessing its underpinning structure but remained committed to engaging locally. He confirmed that some touchpoints might change, and that the VCSE sector would still be able to engage with providers and Integrated Care Team leaders to continue engagement with the health system.

25.8     The Committee asked how the ICBs capacity for engagement with scrutiny might look in the future.

25.9     Ashley Scarff responded that the ICB and NHS commissioning were undergoing significant changes, that had been determined nationally, which would change the ICBs functions and responsibilities. This included a potential increased role of the Department of Health/NHS England in oversight of the performance of providers. The Strategic Commissioning Framework was recently published, which sets out those roles and provides more clarity to the ICB. The ICB were taking care to ensure that during these changes they were maintaining their responsibilities and capacity within their reduced resources.

25.10   The Committee RESOLVED to:

1)    note the verbal update; and

2)    receive an update on neighbourhood health centres, and the merger of SECAmb and SCAS under this item at the next meeting.