03 December 2004
Sixteen 'arm's-length' NHS bodies, including those concerned with fraud, pensions and estate management, will cease to function next year, it emerged this week.
The Department of Health wants to reduce the number of quangos from 38 to 20 in an attempt to release £500m for frontline services.
A timetable for implementation, published on November 30, shows that this process will begin in earnest next year, when functions administered by 16 organisations will be given to six new bodies.
From next October 1, an NHS Business Services Authority will take over the work of the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, the NHS Pensions Agency and the Prescription Pricing Authority.
A Health and Social Care Information Centre will be up and running from April 1 and will
co-ordinate and streamline the collection and dissemination of data, freeing 400 people to concentrate on frontline duties.
Health Secretary John Reid said: 'The organisation of arm's-length bodies has grown over several decades and no longer meets the health and social care needs of today, or the future.'
A further nine arm's-length bodies will be dissolved between 2006 and 2009. In order to achieve savings in line with those expected in other departments, all arm's-length organisations will be expected to share finance and human resources functions.
The DoH estimates that by 2007/08, £250m will be saved in operating costs, and a further £250m will come from efficiencies generated by the bodies themselves.
Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation: 'We will be examining the framework very closely to ensure that the timescales are realistic and that we don't lose valuable functions in the drive for efficiency savings.'
PFdec2004
