'Serious questions' over HSC Board closure - MLA queries absorption into Health department

TUV leader Jim Allister says that it raises “serious questions about the point of the whole exercise” – while the department of health says staff were kept on “in line with legislative requirements”.

The Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) was independent of the Department of Health, and had responsibility for organising health services in Northern Ireland. The DUP’s Simon Hamilton announced plans to close it nine years ago, amid concerns about inefficiencies in the system.

However, all HSCNI Board staff were moved to a new Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG). Rather than posts being allowed to lapse after staff left or retired – new staff have been recruited into former HSCB positions within the health service.

The News Letter had asked Stormont’s health ministry about where the old HSC Board’s communications team had gone, after the issue was raised with the newspaper. The department revealed that SPPG retains the defunct HSCB’s staff, despite the Executive Information Service already providing a full media service to the department.

This newspaper asked the department what it had done to avoid duplication of roles - or unnecessary roles being created – after the entire HSCNI board was ‘migrated’ into the health ministry when it officially closed in 2022.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “In 2015, the then Health Minister decided to close the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB). In line with legislative requirements, all former HSCB staff and their roles and responsibilities were subsequently transferred in 2022 to a new group within the Department with staff retaining their existing HSC terms and conditions.

“As part of the changeover process, consideration was given to how the various functions across the HSCB and Department would work in tandem to continue to fulfil their responsibilities post-migration. This was not unique to communications and included other operations across both organisations including finance, primary care, social care etc”.

The News Letter asked what additional communications capability the Department required that couldn't be carried out by the existing civil service communications team; with whom does the SPPG communications team primarily communicate – and how did this migration of staff improve efficiency in the health service.

A spokesperson said “a communications and engagement hub was established within the Department of Health with each team having clearly defined roles and responsibilities, providing cross team support when necessary.

“Former HSCB communications staff have responsibility for managing stakeholder engagement and communications for transformational and regional projects including major consultations. Recognising the significant pressures on primary care, the team also has a key role in providing communications support and advice to GP practices and community pharmacies.

“Existing press office staff within the Department of Health continue to provide a full range of media and communications services for the Department and Health Minister. Both teams have responsibility for ensuring the wider public is kept informed of health and social care related activity and policy developments”.

TUV leader Jim Allister responded to the statement, saying: “When the then Health Minister Simon Hamilton announced plans to abolish the Health and Social Care Board in order to make health ‘more streamlined, to reduce complexity and to remove bureaucracy’ in 2015 one can hardly imagine that this is what he had in mind.

“One would have imagined that the point of closing the Health and Social Care Board would have been efficiency and there would have been a reduction in the number of staff required in backroom roles as a result.

“To discover, however, that it was simply an issue of the ‘migration’ of the HSCB into the NHS proper with all those involved retaining their existing contractual terms and conditions does raise serious questions about the point of the whole exercise.

“This is particularly the case with the communications team within what used to be the HSCB given that the Executive is already more than adequately provided for by the Executive Information Service.”

The department has undoubtedly benefitted from absorbing HSCB staff in certain areas. The body had operated as a layer between the department and the regional health trusts. Much of that work liaising between those parts of the health service is continued by the SPPG.