A National Audit Office report into financial stability at the NHS has found that 15 out of 19 chief financial officers (CFOs) working for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), which are responsible for clinical commissioning, face significant financial problems with the situation deteriorating in the last year.  

Of the 19 CFOs out of 42 who responded to the NAO, 16 said there was ‘no clear vision of what a financially sustainable NHS would look like in the long term’. However, there is an ‘ambitious’ long-term plan for recovery of the service, although this was planned pre-pandemic.

When they were established, ICBs were supposed to have considerable autonomy in determining how to allocate resources locally and shape the future of local health services.