ICB Watch · NW NHS workforce evidence

Manchester University FT (Acute · Greater Manchester)

2026/27 — the year ahead

£165.8mthe savings this board must find in 2026/27.Value for Patients programme
−1,188 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.Gross reduction (949 net)
Last year
Cut posts in 2025/26 — a WTE reduction — and still finished above its workforce plan. Delivered a ~325 WTE reduction 25/26 (prior packs). How they went about it: a voluntary exit (MARS) scheme ran and recruitment controls operated. The audited accounts record 30 compulsory redundancies in 2025/26 and 49 departures under the voluntary MARS scheme.
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. The board’s own programme figures above are the usable evidence here.
Risks it carries
The board’s own risk register scores 2 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:
  • “Delivering financial sustainability in the medium term” — 20 of 25 — financial pressure
  • “Implications of national restrictions on capital resource” — 20 of 25
If we continue to experience restrictions to capital resource then we will be unable to invest in our infrastructure, medical equipment and digital assets resulting in adverse impacts on service delivery, the safety of our estate for staff and patients and our ability to deliver our strategic ambitions.
If we are unable to achieve our value for patients target, generate sufficient income or manage cost pressures then we would be unable to deliver financial sustainability in the medium term resulting in insufficient cash to meet expenditure obligations and regulatory intervention.
What staff say
33.4%say there are enough staff to do their jobtheir benchmark group: 31.3%
30.3%often or always feel burnt outtheir benchmark group: 32.4%
29.3%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 savings programme (what the NHS calls a cost improvement programme, CIP); its policy of cutting agency and bank use; keeping staffing to what its budget funds; 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
  • MFT contracted WTE reduction FY 2025/26 MFT Public Board of Directors — 1 October 2025 (Workforce dashboard, Contracted WTE) · p.180
  • MFT 2026/27 gross WTE reduction target via Value for Patients programme MFT Public Board Pack 20 May 2026 — People Board Committee Chair's Report · p.358
  • MFT M12 (March 2026) substantive staff in post 28,728 WTE against a target of 28,170 — 558 WTE above plan MFT Public Board Pack 20 May 2026 — Integrated Performance Report W2 metric · p.161
  • Manchester University FT — Executive-led Vacancy Control Panel MFT Public Board of Directors Meeting Papers — 25 March 2026 · p.384
  • MFT MARS scheme launched; recovery workstream targets premium/temporary pay MFT Public Board of Directors papers, 1 October 2025 · p.484
  • MFT launched a MARS scheme in 2025/26 (savings realised 2026/27). MFT Public Board — 1 October 2025 · p.484
  • Audited exit packages, 2025/26. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust — Annual Report and Accounts 2025/26, exit packages note (subject to audit) · p.80
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.
FT“foundation trust” — an NHS trust with more financial freedom than a standard trust.
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.