NHSE budget cuts hit maternity, children and prevention

Maternity, prevention, mental health, and children’s services are the national budgets seeing the biggest cuts after government and NHS England decided to slash ringfenced allocations, HSJ analysis reveals.

The move has seen national “services development funding” (SDF) – money earmarked for national initiatives – slashed from £4.3bn in 2024-25 to just £500m (so far confirmed) for 2025-26. This year’s SDF is expected to grow as more funding is decided in coming months, but to nowhere near the levels seen in recent years.

Mental health has lost £1bn of ringfenced funding, although ICBs are still expected to increase spend in line with total spending growth under the mental health investment standard. 

Lost SDF bundles in mental health include £215m for children and young people (including eating disorders), £275m for mental health support teams in schools, and £540m split between adult community and adult crisis services – all of which have been moved to ICB allocations.

Maternity services received £95m overall in 2024-25 – which is reduced to just £2m this year, with three separate pots cut. Notably, this includes £22m for “Ockenden II workforce”. Funding following Donna Ockenden’s report into maternity failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust was largely earmarked for workforce expansions, and safety improvement work.

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Source: HSJ, 29 April 2025