NHS England has been on borrowed timepublished at 11:30 Greenwich Mean Time
11:30 GMT
Nick Triggle
Health correspondent
NHS England was created as part of the 2012 reforms introduced under former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley.
The idea was to free the health service from day-to-day political meddling – with ministers instead setting the wider strategy, but stepping back from getting involved on a daily basis.
In the years after NHS England has exercised that independence, most notably under the lead of Sir Simon Stevens, who challenged and pressured Theresa May’s government into increasing funding.
In the years leading up to the pandemic, Tory health ministers privately expressed frustration that the single-biggest part of their brief was outside of their control.
As soon as Wes Streeting took charge at the Department of Health and Social Care it was clear he felt the same and NHS England was on borrowed time.
On Monday it was announced half of the roles at NHS England would go – and that came after the chief executive and a number of her top managers announced they would be stepping down.
Much is made of NHS England’s size – with around 13,500 staff it is three times bigger than the department.
But that is partly because two organisations have been merged with it in recent years – Health Education England, responsible for training, and NHS Digital.
Streeting believes this will reduce duplication and bureaucracy – but it is also about control. No longer will NHS bosses be able to keep ministers at arms length.