Down Syndrome Act now names NHS England and ICBs

A quiet but important update to health law took effect on 12 December 2025. The Government has issued the Health and Care Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025, a short statutory instrument that updates the Down Syndrome Act 2022 so the right NHS bodies are named. If you teach or study how the NHS is organised, this is a good moment to refresh our terms.

So what changed? Regulation 2 swaps two old labels for the current ones in the Schedule to the Down Syndrome Act. ‘The National Health Service Commissioning Board’ now appears as ‘NHS England’, and ‘a clinical commissioning group’ is replaced with ‘an integrated care board’. This tidy change ensures the Act points to the organisations that actually exist in 2025.

What is an integrated care board? In plain English, an ICB is your area’s NHS planning and budgeting body. It brings local NHS leaders together to plan services, decide how money is used, and work with councils and community partners. ICBs were established by the Health and Care Act 2022 to replace clinical commissioning groups.

Why does the wording matter in the Down Syndrome Act? The Act requires guidance for public bodies on meeting the needs of people with Down syndrome. Its Schedule lists the ‘relevant authorities’ and the functions to which that guidance applies. By naming NHS England and ICBs, the legal duty to have regard to the guidance stays with the right decision‑makers.

You might wonder about the second swap. The ‘National Health Service Commissioning Board’ is simply the legal name that NHS England used to have. Section 1 of the Health and Care Act 2022 renamed it to NHS England, and today’s instrument updates the Down Syndrome Act so the public‑facing name is used.

Timing and geography matter for exams and for practice. The instrument was made on 11 December 2025 and came into force the next day, 12 December. It extends to England and Wales, but the note explains it applies to NHS functions that are exercisable in England only, because health is devolved in Wales.

For classroom and workplace clarity, read past documents with the new terms in mind. If a care plan, school policy or local protocol still mentions ‘CCG’, interpret that as the local integrated care board. If you are teaching about the NHS, label your diagrams ‘ICB’ and ‘NHS England’ so learners use the current language.

This is a consequential amendment under section 182 of the Health and Care Act 2022, not a policy overhaul. According to the Department of Health and Social Care’s note, no full impact assessment was produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. The change aligns the statute book with how the NHS has worked since 2022.

For the record keepers among us: the measure is Statutory Instrument 2025/1312. It was signed for the Secretary of State by Zubir Ahmed, Parliamentary Under‑Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, on 11 December 2025. That formal step is what allows the update to take effect the following day.

Quick recap you can use in a lesson: clinical commissioning groups have been replaced by integrated care boards; the NHS Commissioning Board is now called NHS England; and the Down Syndrome Act’s Schedule has been updated from 12 December 2025 so guidance duties sit with those bodies. Clear names make accountability easier to teach and easier to hold.