ICB Watch · NW NHS workforce evidence

Alder Hey Children's (Children's · Cheshire & Merseyside)

2026/27 — the year ahead

−265 WTEthe workforce reduction in its 2026/27 plan. iWhat does a “workforce reduction” mean? Not always people losing their jobs. Boards count in WTE — units of one full-time post — and the routes differ in who they touch. Cutting agency work: paid work lost, but no NHS post existed. Cutting bank shifts: extra shifts mostly worked by the trust’s own staff — a pay cut that never shows in post counts. Freezing vacancies: no one is dismissed, but the post and its future job go, and the work lands on those who remain. Deleting posts shrinks the establishment itself. Voluntary exits: MARS is a paid resignation without redundancy rights; voluntary redundancy is redundancy on volunteered terms. Compulsory redundancy is the rarest route — boards report it separately in their audited accounts.
Last year
Set a reduction target for 2025/26 (all staff — substantive plus bank and agency). A 148 WTE gap against its budgeted staffing level at March 2026 — unfilled posts, not a delivered reduction; against the workforce plan it submitted to NHS England the trust ended 2025/26 above plan. How they went about it: a voluntary exit (MARS) scheme ran and recruitment controls operated. National payroll figures show that over roughly the same period (April 2025 to April 2026) the trust’s workforce fell by 127 whole-time-equivalent (WTE) posts (-3.1%). Against the workforce plan it submitted to NHS England for 2025/26, the trust ended March 2026 1.7% above the level its own plan set for that month, counting total staff in post (substantive plus bank and agency) (read from the Cheshire & Merseyside system report’s monitoring chart).
Who was cut

The national payroll change above, broken down by staff group (April 2025 to April 2026):

Support to clinical staff
−54
Professionally qualified clinical staff
−44
NHS infrastructure support
−30
Central functions
−19
Managers
−7.4
Hotel, property & estates
−5.2
Senior managers
+1.8
Risks it carries
The board’s own risk register scores 6 risks at 15 or more out of 25 iHow risk scores work. Boards score each risk out of 25 (how likely × how serious). We mark every score of 15 or more red — the range treated as very high or extreme. The highest of them:
  • “Financial targets, NHS regime change, capital commitments — score remains at 20” — 20 of 25 — financial pressure
  • “Building and infrastructure defects — PFI dispute language at board level” — 16 of 25 — the condition of buildings and estates
  • “Failure to maintain a sustainable workforce — 12 corporate risks ≥15 linked” — 16 of 25 — financial pressure
The CHP unit has been offline for nearly a year. The Trust continues to await an update from Project Co regarding the status of the unit and proposed next steps. … A formal notification covering the above matters has been issued to Project Co. No response has been received to date …
Failure to meet financial targets, changing NHS regime and inability to meet the Trust's ongoing capital commitments. [Current 20 (Impact 4 × Likelihood 5), Target 12.] Risk score remains at 20.
What staff say
32.5%say there are enough staff to do their jobtheir benchmark group: 31.3%
31.3%often or always feel burnt outtheir benchmark group: 32.4%
28.3%often think about leavingtheir benchmark group: 29.9%
NHS Staff Survey 2025 · compared with similar trusts iNHS Staff Survey 2025. The comparison figure is the average of the trust’s own “benchmark group” — the set of similar trusts NHS England compares it with.
Why the cuts?
The trust’s own papers state why it is reducing its workforce: its own financial position — the deficit or savings gap it faces. iThese are the reasons the trust itself gives for its workforce reduction, coded from its public board papers. Wider pressures — on services, waiting times or safety — appear under “Risks it carries”, from the board’s own risk register.
On the record — the board’s own papers & where every figure comes from
  • Alder Hey 2026/27 workforce plan: overall reduction of 265 WTE from current establishment (CIP incl £6m recurrent) Trust Board (Public), 5 February 2026 · p.36
  • Alder Hey ran a REDUCING internal workforce plan through 2025/26: the June-2025 dashboard states an April plan point of 4,482 WTE ('a reduced plan') with the actual at 4,360 — 121 WTE below it. A plan trajectory point, not an annual target figure. Alder Hey Trust Board, 5 June 2025 — IPR workforce dashboard · p.87
  • Alder Hey runs MARS — closed May 2025, re-opened October 2025 Alder Hey Trust Board Agenda — 5 February 2026 (Workforce commentary + Workforce Committee report) · p.152
  • Alder Hey — recruitment freeze on corporate/managerial roles + 50% new-starter cap Alder Hey Trust Board Meeting — 4 December 2025 · p.162
Sources: the trust’s own board papers (cited above) · NHS England workforce statistics (Apr→Apr, our arithmetic) · NHS Staff Survey 2025 · every figure is traceable to the evidence ledger on the audit twin of this page
Plain-English key
WTE / FTEtwo names for the same measure — one full-time post’s worth of paid staff time (two half-time staff count as one). It is a unit of time, not a count of people: a reduction of 100 WTE can mean fewer people, fewer hours, or fewer bank and agency shifts, and is usually a mix. Boards plan and report in WTE across all staff — permanent, bank and agency together — and so does this card, which says which of those a figure counts. Boards write WTE (“whole-time equivalent”); the national statistics write FTE (“full-time equivalent”).
CIP“cost improvement programme” — the NHS term for a savings plan.
Deficitspending more than the money coming in. A trust whose plan is a deficit is planning to end the year in the red by that amount.
MARS“mutually agreed resignation scheme” — a voluntary paid-exit scheme.
Establishmentthe number of funded posts a trust plans to employ — its budgeted staffing level — whether or not each post is filled. Removing a vacancy from the establishment cuts the planned staffing level without anyone losing a job.
Substantivepermanently employed staff, as opposed to bank or agency staff.
Benchmark groupthe set of similar trusts NHS England compares each trust with in the staff survey.