ICBs enter clustering arrangement to prepare for new Thames Valley ICB

Inflationary pressures have ‘exacerbated’ the financial strain on healthcare services, NHS Frimley’s finance chief has said.

Last month, board members at Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) were told of the financial challenges facing the organisation.

This comes ahead of the creation of a larger Thames Valley ICB, which will be responsible for planning and managing health services in the region when it comes into operation in April.

During Frimley ICB’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, September 16, chief financial officer (CFO) Richard Chapman said it is ‘probably the most challenging financial environment I have known in the NHS’.

He added: “We delivered a modest surplus for the 2024-25 financial year of £27,000. That was as a result of some very significant work.

“There is an underlying deficit in the system as there is in many systems across the country, and the delivery of that small surplus necessitated some quite stringent cost reduction measures.

“The financial environment that we are facing is very closely tied to the system’s operational performance and workforce challenges.”

He added that ‘we have local inflationary pressures that have consistently surpassed national forecasts and funding’.

These have ‘exacerbated the financial strain on the system to manage the increased demand that we are facing’, Mr Chapman explained.

At the beginning of last month, NHS England confirmed that, from April 1 2026, 12 existing ICBs will be abolished and replaced with six new ICBs covering a larger area.

This will see a new NHS Thames Valley ICB created, following the abolition of the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) ICB and Frimley ICB, and the incorporation of East Berkshire from Frimley ICB.

Work has already started in preparation for this, with ICBs told to make reductions of 50 per cent in their running costs.

Starting this Wednesday (October 1) BOB ICB and Frimley ICB entered into a new clustering arrangement, under joint chairs Dr Priya Singh and CEO Dr Nick Broughton, in preparation for the new ICB.

Clustering means that both ICBs still exist, but they work as one until the formal merger takes place.

One of the objectives of the cluster partnership is to collectively achieve a reduction in running costs equivalent to £19 per head of population across both organisations.

In a statement provided to the Advertiser, BOB ICB and Frimley ICB, said: “NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) ICB have been working closely together for several months to prepare for the establishment of a new Thames Valley Integrated Care Board as part of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan.

“The new ICB, which will come into being in April 2026, will serve around 2.5million people across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire as the commissioner for health and care services.

“NHS Thames Valley ICB will work to strengthen partnership working across health and social care, tackling health inequalities, making best use of financial resources and workforce and ensuring services are shaped around the needs of our diverse communities.”