GPs will stop funding the Southport Macmillan Centre's cancer navigators, who give emotional, practical and financial support, after March 2027. What changes.

Southport and Formby’s GP practices will stop paying for the cancer navigators at the Southport Macmillan Centre after 31 March 2027. The decision goes before Sefton councillors on Tuesday 13 October.

The 14 practices in the Southport and Formby Primary Care Network (PCN) made the decision unanimously in August. They fund four full-time-equivalent navigator posts at the Wright Street centre.

The PCN’s own report to the council says the practices cannot afford the service after losing national funding. The centre says the cut would cost it 70 per cent of its staff.

Why the GPs say they are cutting it

The PCN’s report to the council’s Adult Social Care and Health scrutiny committee sets out the money. (Sefton Council, report of Southport and Formby PCN)

  • National Capacity and Access funding was withdrawn for 2026/27. For this PCN that is a recurring loss of about £427,000, based on 2025/26 figures.
  • Separate Capacity and Access Improvement Plan funding, worth about £180,000 last year, has also gone.
  • The report says both changes came “with very limited notice”.

The practices have already made other cuts this year. The report says they used one-off funding and made their ARRS GPs redundant to stay solvent. ARRS is the national scheme that pays for extra clinical staff in GP networks.

The report calls the centre “invaluable” and says the practices “recognise the significant benefit” it brings. But it concludes that the navigator service “falls outside the core contractual requirements” of the national GP network contract and “is no longer affordable”.

It also says the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board told the PCN it has no power over this decision. That rests with the member practices.

What the centre says it would lose

The navigators work with GP surgeries to give people with cancer emotional, practical and financial support. The centre says it helped more than 600 cancer patients through the scheme last year. (Southport Macmillan Centre, 10 July 2026)

In a further update on 17 July, the centre said that if the funding goes:

  • it would lose 70 per cent of its staff team, including its specialist cancer rehab personal trainer
  • it would be left with 1.5 staff
  • its exercise programme would stop
  • many other activities would be “greatly reduced”

The centre said the PCN’s public statement “does not give a detailed enough picture of the devastating effect” on the wider service. It also warned that without the GP link, people may not hear about the centre “until several months down the line” after a diagnosis.

The centre will stay open. Its drop-in runs from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, at 29 Wright Street, PR9 0TL. (Macmillan Cancer Support)

What the GPs say they will do instead

The PCN’s report accepts that patient experience, equality and equity are “most likely” to suffer, because the service is not clinical. It says:

  • GP practices will support patients with a cancer diagnosis directly and signpost them to the services the centre would have referred them to
  • it is assessing which patients in its four neighbourhoods are most likely to be affected
  • it will “advocate for the Centre” with the Integrated Care Board, which also commissions services from it

The report asks councillors to note it. It also asks them to consider “the wider responsibility” of all health and care partners, and the Integrated Care Board, for “the lack of sustainable funding” for voluntary groups like the centre.

Tuesday’s meeting

The item is number 5 on the agenda. (Sefton Council, agenda)

  • When: Tuesday 13 October 2026, 6.30pm
  • Where: Committee Room, Bootle Town Hall, Trinity Road, Bootle, L20 7AE, about 15 miles south of Southport
  • Watch: the council webcasts the meeting from the agenda page

The committee can comment and make recommendations. It cannot reverse the PCN’s decision, which belongs to the GP practices.

What it means for you

  • If you use the centre now, the navigator funding continues until 31 March 2027. Drop in or call 01704 533024.
  • If you want to make your views known, the centre has asked supporters to write to their GP and their MP. Its 10 July post has a draft letter and the MPs’ email addresses.
  • If you are newly diagnosed after April 2027, your GP practice says it will signpost you to support services directly. You can still self-refer to the centre.

We will report what the committee says once the minutes are published.