ICB Watch · NW NHS workforce evidence

East Lancashire Hospitals (Acute · Lancashire & South Cumbria)

2026/27 — the year ahead

−744 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.744 WTE gross / 552 net (after OneLSC transfer in), year one 26/27
Last year
Cut posts in 2025/26 — its figure counts paid staff on all contracts — and still finished above its workforce plan. The number of funded posts actually went UP by 54 WTE in the month reported — the savings came from cutting temporary staffing, not posts. How they went about it: a voluntary exit (MARS) scheme ran and recruitment controls operated.
Who was cut
The national payroll count is not usable for this trust this year. Whole services — and their staff — moved between organisations during the year, so the count would mix those transfers with genuine cuts. Documented: One LSC shared corporate-services transfer (ELHT is host) (documented in our transfer audit)-08-07; LSC pathology single service transferred to LTH as lead provider on the first of April — donors named in the pack as ELHT, Blackpool and Morecambe Bay, moving under TUPE with roles and locations unchanged; documented (documented in our transfer audit)-08-09. The board’s own programme figures above are the usable evidence here.
Risks it carries
The board’s own risk register scores 4 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:
  • “Quality and Safety — densest corporate-risk cluster” — 20 of 25 — risk to quality and safety of care
  • “Financial Sustainability — Cautious appetite breached by 14 points” — 20 of 25 — financial pressure
  • “Integrated Care / Partnerships / System Working — RSP exit named” — 20 of 25
The strategies and partnership arrangements across the Integrated Care System (ICS) do not deliver the anticipated benefits for our communities and fail to support the financial recovery of the Trust, including exit from NHS Oversight Framework Segment 4 (Recovery Support Programme).
[Corporate Risk Register risks linked to BAF 2 Quality & Safety, all scored ≥15:] 10086 Lack of adequate online storage for images (20); 10065 Pharmacy Technical Service refurbishment programme (20); 9755 Delays undertaking elective caesarean sections (20); 8941 Increased reporting times in histology due to increased activity outstripping resource (20); 9336 ED capacity (16); 10062 Risk of harm and poor experience for patients with mental health concerns (16); 9777 Loss of education, research and innovation accommodation and facilities (16); 8061 Patients experiencing delays past their intended clinical review date may experience deterioration (16); 8033 Increased requirement for nutrition and hydration intervention in patients resulting in delays (16); 9900 Poor identification, management and prevention of delirium (15); 8808 Breaches to fire stopping and compartmentalisation in walls and fire door surrounds – Burnley General Teaching Hospital (15); 4932 Patients lacking capacity to consent to hospital placements may be being unlawfully detained (15).
What staff say
24.2%say there are enough staff to do their jobtheir benchmark group: 31.3%
38.9%often or always feel burnt outtheir benchmark group: 32.4%
36.4%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 savings programme (what the NHS calls a cost improvement programme, CIP); and a further reason stated in its papers. 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
  • East Lancashire Hospitals 25/26: Paid WTE ROSE +112 over the year (M7 9,601 → M12 9,713) — planned workforce reduction NOT delivered; trust acknowledges M8 +81 WTE correction in own FPR ELHT Trust Board Public Session — 11 March 2026 (M10 FPR + People & Culture Committee Escalation 26/27 plan) + 13 May 2026 (M12 FPR + Annual Medical & Dental Workforce Review + MARS relaunch) + January 2026 cited pack retained as M8 +81 correction anchor
  • ELHT M9 → M10 paid WTE — DECREASED by 78 WTE to 9,610 (only in-year reduction month) ELHT Trust Board Public Session 11 March 2026 — M10 Finance summary · p.97
  • ELHT 2026/27 Waste Reduction Programme (WRP): 744 WTE reduction in year one; 552 WTE net once OneLSC staff transferring into ELHT are counted ELHT Trust Board Public Session 11 March 2026 — Workforce Plan 2026/27 committee escalation report · p.181
  • East Lancashire Hospitals runs vacancy control (pay/non-pay panels) + MARS (continuing from 2024/25) ELHT Trust Board Agenda and Papers — November 2025 (M6 IPR finance commentary) · p.117+70+102
  • ELHT — Divisional + Trust Vacancy Control Panel + daily CPO Variable Pay Panel ELHT Trust Board Public Session — 14 January 2026 · p.36
  • ELHT launched an updated MARS scheme (applications 1-30 April). ELHT Trust Board Public Session — 13 May 2026
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.
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.
Benchmark groupthe set of similar trusts NHS England compares each trust with in the staff survey.