Trust chief joins ICB grappling with huge deficit

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board has appointed Aaron Cummins, who currently leads the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust.

Mr Cummins will join the ICB in November. It follows the departure of Kevin Lavery, who stepped down in April after three years at the ICB, while chief finance officer Sam Proffitt has since been serving as interim chief executive. 

Mr Cummins has held senior positions at UHMBFT for more than a decade and has been CEO since 2018. Previously he was deputy CEO and chief financial officer.

During the past year, NHS England has stepped up its intervention over the Lancashire and South Cumbria system’s deficit problems. Its financial plan for 2025-26 is based on receiving £164m deficit support, despite national allocation formulas suggesting the ICB gets more than its “fair share” of funding. Its savings target of 7.2 per cent of its allocation has been classed as “high risk”; and provider trusts are already significantly behind target.

NHSE put the ICB into “enforcement undertakings” in March.

The board is also in segment four of NHSE’s oversight framework, and receiving “recovery support”. UHMBFT is the only one of its four main acute providers which is not in segment four (the other three are Blackpool, East Lancashire, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals). It recorded a £19.1m deficit at the end of 2024-25 – smaller than the other acute providers.

It also comes as ICBs are going through restructures to cut their staffing budgets in half by December. LSC is in a minority of ICBs which does not plan to merge or cluster with a neighbour, however.

Mr Cummins said: “There is more change ahead, and it may feel difficult for some, but I truly believe that by working together and supporting each other, we can make the organisation better than it has ever been.”

He has also worked as deputy CEO and director of finance and performance at Mid Staffordshire FT, and director of finance at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital. 

He has chaired the NHS Customer Board at Government Procurement Services and the finance directors’ forum at the Foundation Trust Network.