ICB Watch · NW NHS workforce evidence

Stockport NHS FT (Acute · Greater Manchester)

2026/27 — the year ahead

£26.8mthe savings this board must find in 2026/27.2026/27 CIP requirement — 5%, cash-releasing; the board notes a material proportion remains unidentified.
Last year
Missed its 2025/26 workforce plan. 6,221 WTE at March 2026 against a plan of 6,161 — 61 above, after a year in which the workforce rose from 6,115 while the plan fell from 6,258; the trust’s own annual review nonetheless rates its M12 workforce plan ‘delivered’, a judgement about establishment control and temporary staffing that carries no figure. National payroll figures show that over roughly the same period (April 2025 to April 2026) the trust’s workforce grew by 102 whole-time-equivalent (WTE) posts (+1.8%).
Who was cut

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

Support to clinical staff
−38
Central functions
−17
Senior managers
+4.3
NHS infrastructure support
+7.6
Managers
+7.8
Hotel, property & estates
+13
Professionally qualified clinical staff
+133
Risks it carries
The board’s own risk register scores 5 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:
  • “Failure to maintain suitability of premises and environments” — 20 of 25 — the condition of buildings and estates
  • “Failure to achieve mandatory access standards for urgent & emergency care” — 16 of 25 — pressure on waiting times, access and capacity
  • “Failure to deliver annual revenue (including cash) and capital financial plans” — 16 of 25 — financial pressure
There has been one reduction in risk score, with Principal Risk 4.1 - Failure to recruit and retain the optimal number of staff, reduced from 12 (C3 x L4) to 9 (C3 x L3) based on an improved recruitment position, lowest vacancy rate in 12 months and better than plan turnover position.
What staff say
31.4%say there are enough staff to do their jobtheir benchmark group: 31.3%
29.8%often or always feel burnt outtheir benchmark group: 32.4%
25.7%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). 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
  • Stockport set workforce-reduction targets the board judged unlikely to be met (joint SFT+T&G board). Stockport (joint w/ Tameside & Glossop) Public Board Meeting Pack — 26 March 2026
  • Stockport's WTE remained above plan at December 2025 (M9), with in-year reductions 'unlikely' — planned reduction not on course (joint board minutes, 29 Jan 2026). Minutes of the joint Stockport / Tameside & Glossop board of 29 January 2026 (item 160/25 Finance Report), in the Public Board Meeting Pack of 26 March 2026 · p.11
  • Stockport 25/26 WTE plan reduces by 32 WTE (CIP schemes, H2) Public Board Meeting Pack, 4 Dec 2025 · p.102
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.
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.