Around 3,000 NHS England regional staff will be employed by a new temporary Special Health Authority, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed, as the government presses ahead with abolishing NHS England.

Cooper announced the new body in a ministerial statement on Wednesday 4 November. NHS England will formally be abolished on 1 April 2027, subject to the passage of the Health Bill, with most of its national functions moving into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Seven regional teams

The new authority will support NHS England's seven regional teams — East of England, London, Midlands, North East and Yorkshire, North West, South East and South West — which will not transfer into the DHSC on 1 April 2027. Cooper said the teams should stay close to the frontline organisations they support, rather than being centralised in the department.

It will answer directly to the health secretary through a new NHS Group inside the department, and will not exercise national functions. Cooper called it a "temporary arrangement that will support the transition towards a more devolved model", but staff have been told there is no plan for when it will shut down.

The wider reorganisation

Abolition was first announced in March 2025 by Wes Streeting and Sir Keir Starmer. Cooper, appointed health secretary in July, reviewed the plans over the summer.

The NHS keeps its own chief executive, with a new NHS Group inside the DHSC handling operational delivery. Cooper also announced a patient experience director and a first Clinical Council of senior clinicians. She also told MPs that AI could reduce workforce needs in some NHS areas, and that the 10-year workforce plan will now appear in the new year.