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Solihull NHS Care Trust launched a voluntary redundancy scheme on Tuesday.
It comes as it says cash will be cut for patient services.
Chief executive Claire Molloy said: “I appreciate that this has been a very difficult time for staff and in particular, for the small number of individuals whose posts are identified within pools where savings may need to be made.”
The care trust provides community health and social care, such as district nurses, and decides where Solihull’s £356m NHS budget is spent.
A consultation was launched on November 15 and will run to January unless unions agree it “has been exhausted at an earlier point”.
In a reprt to board members, she said: “The consultation will seek to ensure that the trust has explored and exhausted all possible options before initiating a compulsory redundancy programme, including a voluntary redundancy scheme which was launched on 16 November 2010 and is open to applicants for four weeks.”
She said: “I would like to thank staff for their continued support and professionalism throughout this challenging time and would encourage and welcome their responses to the consultation document.”
The document has not been made public. It spells out how the care trust will save £1.6m as a result of cuts to public spending.
It says this will be on office staff but also cash for patient services.
The report says: “Solihull Care Trust must reduce its expenditure on commissioning and corporate services.”
It comes as the trust sets out how it will radically alter its operations from April 1.
It is to transfer its community health services to the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Heartlands, Solihull and Good Hope hospitals.
Adult social care services, community equipment, th wheelchair service, learning disability residential homes and supported living would go to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.
Some learning disability services and the “improving access to psychological therapies” would go to to Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust.
The move is seen as key as the care trust currently decides where NHS cash is spent and provides some NHS services. This is seen as un-competititve.
The care trust said: “The proposals involve changes to the way services are managed rather than to the services themselves.
“In the first instance patients, service users and clients are unlikely to notice any difference to the treatment, care or support they receive.
“The change is aimed at improving services in the longer term.”
The care trust will be abolished in 2012 under Government reforms that will hand most of the NHS budget to GPs.
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