Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that NHS England will be abolished to "cut bureaucracy" and bring management of the health service "back into democratic control", in a speech on 13 March about reshaping the state and civil service.
Starmer said the move will put the NHS "back at the heart of government, where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, less bureaucracy, with more money for nurses", adding that the NHS should be overseen by politicians rather than an arm’s-length body. It follows moves by the Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting to reorganise NHS England. Its current Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard is standing down at the end of this month.
Sir James Mackey is due to take up the new role of Transition CEO at the start of April, which will now see the body and its functions absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
NHS England, formerly the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the DHSC, it was established in 2013 to give the health service greater independence and autonomy. It currently employs around 13,500 staff - three times more than the DHSC.