18 December 2020

In last week’s briefing, we committed to updating you following discussions about the timeline for the transfer of staff and services to Mersey Care and Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH).

At yesterday’s Transaction Board, the following decisions were taken:

  1. Our Wigan, Bolton and Greater Manchester staff and services will continue with a target transfer date to GMMH of 1 April 2021. This can be achieved because the type of transaction for these services is more straightforward. It is a simple transfer of contracts by Wigan commissioners from our Trust to GMMH. The transfer follows a similar process to when we have acquired and onboarded new services over the years.
  1. Our Cheshire and Merseyside staff and services will have a new target transfer date to Mersey Care of 1 July 2021. The additional time is needed to allow for formal governance arrangements and approvals in line with NHS England/Improvement’s transaction process.

We have said all along that we firmly believe the transfer of our services to GMMH and Mersey Care is the right decision for staff and patients in the long term, and we stand by that.

We also appreciate this latest news may leave uncertainty for some staff – particularly those working in corporate services and those working across our footprint. Please be assured all of you will have a home in one of the new organisations.

We know the future of our services, and your own future is very important to you and we will share any new information as soon as it is available.

In the meantime, if you have any questions please email ourfuture@nwbh.nhs.uk and we will do our best to answer what we’re able to. You may also want to ask our executives at today’s live Q&A.

Thank you for your ongoing support and patience as we move to a more sustainable future for you and our patients.