Jump to content
  • articles
    9,899
  • comments
    84
  • views
    12,584,156

Contributors to this article

About this News

Articles in the news

NHSE cuts £1bn from cancer, maternity and primary care funds

NHS England is raiding a national fund earmarked for improvements in cancer, maternity care and other priority services by up to £1bn this year, to pay for deficits elsewhere, and will cut it by a similar amount in 2023-24, HSJ has learned.

The “service development fund” is allocated at the beginning of the year for priority service areas also including primary care, community health, mental health, learning disabilities and health inequalities.

Several NHSE directors said it was being tightly squeezed this year, amid major cost pressures from inflation, a pay deal unfunded by government, and higher than expected covid-related costs.

One well-placed source said the fund this year was required to underspend by about £1bn against what had been planned, which will help balance overspends elsewhere in the NHS. 

The cuts are likely to be linked to ministers’ view that the NHS should focus on “core” priorities and cut other activities, including reducing NHSE national programme work which is typically linked to SDF budgets.  Patricia Hewitt is looking into giving integrated care systems more “autonomy” from NHSE to set their own priorities. 

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 8 December 2022

Read more

NHSE culture change programme failed, says external review

An NHS England programme designed to improve leadership behaviours and culture in maternity departments following high-profile scandals failed to achieve its aims, an external review has concluded.

NHSE’s perinatal culture and leadership programme launched in 2022 as part of the three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, with five intakes covering all 120 trusts by mid-2025.

It followed reviews by Donna Ockenden at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and Bill Kirkup at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, which identified common challenges, including flaws in leadership, culture, and teamworking.

The PCLP sought to address these by bringing together senior leaders in maternity and neonatal services as a perinatal quadrumvirate (quad).

But an external review by academics at the University of Birmingham, shared exclusively with HSJ, has found “limited” evidence of change and that improvements “did not often ripple up/across and down throughout services”.

The report said: “This was due to an entrenched culture of siloed working within different staff groups, which the PCLP did not create the conditions to overcome, in large part due to quads and staff not having sufficient time to work on this alongside day-to-day operational pressures and a lack of sustained support for quads… from the wider trust.”

It added: “These challenges were exacerbated in trusts where divisional structures did not lend themselves to collective perinatal working.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 2 March 2026

Read more

NHSE cracks down on ‘variable’ testing after C difficile rise

NHS England is introducing new infection diagnosis standards, which experts told Health Service Journal reflected a “real concern” about variation between providers.

A draft document on proposed changes to the NHS Standard Contract 2026-27 says adherence to national guidance on diarrhoea sampling and testing for C difficile was currently “variable” across providers, while NHSE has also warned about variation in service delivery and outcomes for blood culture pathways.

It comes amid national concern over the rising numbers of infections caused by C difficile, a type of bacteria which can cause diarrhoea, with cases reaching a 13-year high in 2024 and experts warning they could rise again.

Read full article (paywalled).

Source: Health Service Journal, 18 December 2025

Read more

NHSE could impose new cancer system on struggling trusts

Trusts failing to meet cancer standards may be encouraged to use a new tool on the federated data platform, HSJ understands.

NHS England today announced the launch of the Cancer 360 tool on the FDP, which it says will help clinicians to “identify and address delays immediately” in cancer treatment pathways. 

In a media briefing attended by HSJ, NHSE said no trust would be “forced” to take up the tool. It said there would be “no questions asked” if another system was already in place and the organisation was meeting performance targets, such as the faster diagnosis or 62-day referral-to-treatment standards.

However, there “would be a conversation” about the need to use Cancer 360 if a trust had another system in place and was not meeting standards, officials confirmed.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 4 May 2025

Read more

NHSE commissions rapid review of acute trusts’ EPR plans

Beverley Bryant, former director of digital transformation at NHS England, and joint chief digital information officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS FT, is undertaking a rapid review of electronic patient record (EPR) plans at nine acute NHS trusts.

The eight-week review, commissioned by John Quinn, chief information officer at NHSE, is intended to share lessons to help the trusts, which are at various stages of EPR journeys, ranging from business case development to planning for implementation.

The review started in September 2024, with a letter sent to the chief executives of the respective trusts by Quinn and Vin Diwakar, director of the NHSE Transformation Directorate.

Quinn told Digital Health News: “Beverley Bryant is supporting NHS England’s frontline digitisation programme to help a number of acute trusts, who are at varying stages of their EPR journey, to overcome any barriers to the successful delivery of their EPR strategies".

Read full story

Source: Digital Health, 26 September 2024

Related reading on the hub:

Read more

NHSE claims 20% cut in long waiters before latest strikes

Trusts reduced the number of 65-week breaches by around 20% and cut the overall elective waiting list between October and mid-December, NHS England has said.

The claim is based on provisional data published by NHSE on 2 January, which came with a warning of possible “significant issues regarding the quality and completeness”.

The figures suggest the number of 65-week waiters fell from around 114,000 on 8 October to around 93,000 by 17 December. The last official “referral to treatment” figures were published last month (see table below). They reported there were around 107,000 65-week breaches in October.

Sources familiar with the provisional data, from the “waiting list minimum data set”, said while it was not as accurate as official referral to treatment statistics, it gives an accurate picture of the direction of travel and overall performance.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 3 January 2024

Read more

NHSE chief: Federated data platform will ‘not be spectacular’

An NHS England chief has admitted the controversial ‘federated data platform’ will ‘not be that spectacular’ despite national leaders previously talking it up as ‘critical for the future of the NHS.’

NHSE chief data and analytics officer Ming Tang said the new data platform, which is being rolled out to trusts across the country, will help staff manage logistical tasks but said the system is “not pretty”.

NHSE wants trusts to adopt the FDP to bring together operational data currently stored in separate systems into “one safe and secure environment.” However, politicians and campaigners have raised concerns about privacy and data protection, particularly over the involvement of US firm Palantir, which is leading the consortium to deliver the FDP.

Speaking at the Health Excellence Through Technology conference on Tuesday (24 September), Ms Tang said “the most important thing… is that we deliver products that work for people, not the products that we want to push.

“I’ve always said [FDP is] not pretty, it’s not that spectacular. But what we’re really doing is helping people do their workflow, helping nurses on the ward so they don’t have to have bits of paper in their pockets, [helping] multidisciplinary teams so they’re not running around chasing emails.

“So, [it’s] taking away some of those logistical activities so they can focus on the frontline and on the patients.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 September 2024

Read more

NHSE chair leading mental health services review

NHS England’s chair is leading a national review of mental health services and productivity, HSJ  has learned.

The work, being referred to as a “supply-side review”, is running alongside the more high-profile independent analysis of demand for MH and learning disability services commissioned by Wes Streeting last year.

HSJ understands Dr Dash’s deep-dive is expected to be complete in the autumn, around the same time as the government review.

Analysis has begun in recent months, including on spending, variation, productivity and the potential for “reinvesting” current funding, according to sources briefed on the project.

The review has been referred to as “internal” and NHSE does not appear to be planning to publish it.

It was initiated by the “quad” of senior officials across NHSE and the Department of Health and Social Care (Dr Dash herself, NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey, DHSC permanent secretary Samantha Jones, and DHSC lead non-exec director Alan Milburn).

The review is also being overseen by an advisory group, with representation from mental health trusts, and others.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 8 April 2026

Read more

NHSE calls urgent meeting over powers to strike off managers

Amanda Pritchard has said it is time to ‘look again’ at whether NHS England should be given formal powers to disbar managers for ‘serious misconduct’.

In an email to regional leaders and some national bodies yesterday, seen by HSJ, the chief executive officer of NHS England said the murder trial of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby has brought the issue of professional regulation for managers back into focus. She has planned an urgent meeting next week to discuss the options.

Ms Pritchard said she wanted the meeting to explore; the feasibility of NHSE being given the powers and resources to act as a regulator; who this could apply to and how it could operate; and how a dedicated regulatory body for NHS leaders might fulfil the role.

She stressed any new powers would need to be determined by the government, but said the NHS “should contribute proactively and fully, and with an open mind, to this decision-making process”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 25 August 2023

Read more

NHSE calls on systems and maternity leads to vaccinate more pregnant women

An NHS England letter has warned of “significant variation” in the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine amongst pregnant women, and called on systems to enable more “spontaneous” antenatal vaccination.

In the letter, sent to integrated care system vaccination programme leads, ICS maternity leads and other NHS clinical directors, NHS England said that while the rates of women who had received at least two doses of the vaccine before giving birth was on the rise, there was “significant variation in uptake between regions and systems and in every system, between women of different ethnicities, decile of deprivation in their local area, and age groups”.

The letter asks that covid vaccines are made available within antenatal clinics “to maximise uptake” and that partially vaccinated women “are offered vaccine confidence conversations and advised antenatally on the nearest available walk-in vaccinations”.

Vaccination programme and maternity service leads have also been told to make use of resources and funding available to drive uptake in at-risk groups.

It said: “Vaccination and maternity leads should discuss how this resource could be used to provide in-reach clinics within every maternity service, without creating additional burden on midwifery staff.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 January 2022

Read more

NHSE budget cuts hit maternity, children and prevention

Maternity, prevention, mental health, and children’s services are the national budgets seeing the biggest cuts after government and NHS England decided to slash ringfenced allocations, HSJ analysis reveals.

The move has seen national “services development funding” (SDF) – money earmarked for national initiatives – slashed from £4.3bn in 2024-25 to just £500m (so far confirmed) for 2025-26. This year’s SDF is expected to grow as more funding is decided in coming months, but to nowhere near the levels seen in recent years.

Mental health has lost £1bn of ringfenced funding, although ICBs are still expected to increase spend in line with total spending growth under the mental health investment standard. 

Lost SDF bundles in mental health include £215m for children and young people (including eating disorders), £275m for mental health support teams in schools, and £540m split between adult community and adult crisis services – all of which have been moved to ICB allocations.

Maternity services received £95m overall in 2024-25 – which is reduced to just £2m this year, with three separate pots cut. Notably, this includes £22m for “Ockenden II workforce”. Funding following Donna Ockenden’s report into maternity failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust was largely earmarked for workforce expansions, and safety improvement work.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 29 April 2025

Read more

NHSE board members face regulation under government proposals

A major consultation on introducing professional regulation of NHS managers and leaders proposes applying the measures to NHS England board members.

One of the questions in the Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation on regulating NHS managers, published this afternoon, asks participants whether “appropriate board members at arms-length bodies (for example, NHS England)” should face a system of regulation.

However, the consultation does not ask participants whether NHSE employees should be included in plans for an individual statutory duty of candour, which could see managers face legal penalties for failing to report safety concerns.

Instead, it only asks if managers at Care Quality Commission-regulated organisations should face tougher legal accountability, and at which level this should be considered.

The consultation, set to run for 12 weeks, will consider the type of regulatory system that would be deemed appropriate, which managers should be in scope, what kind of body should be responsible for its regulation, and what types of standards managers should be required to demonstrate.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 November 2024

Read more

NHSE bid to divert referrals falling well short of target

NHS England is set to fall “well short” of a key target to ramp up GPs’ use of “advice and guidance” from specialists – and the model is “unlikely to be the silver bullet ministers hoped for” to help cut waiting lists, experts have warned.

The warning comes in a Nuffield Trust analysis, shared exclusively with HSJ. It represents a blow for ministers and NHS leaders because reducing referrals through an expansion of A&G is one of the central planks of their elective recovery plan.

The findings raise further questions about the NHS’s attempts to meet the government’s headline target of recovering 18-week performance back to the 92 per cent standard by 2029, which is already widely viewed to be off track.

The A&G model, when working well, allows GPs to seek advice from hospital specialists on a patient’s condition before making a referral. And in around half of these cases, the GP can avoid referring the patient onto the waiting list. This is known as a “diversion” – although the report explains that some of these cases would never have resulted in referrals.

But the analysis concludes that, while A&G requests have increased, the NHS will not deliver nearly enough requests overall, or “divert” enough referrals, to meet its ambitious targets.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 27 February 2026

Read more

NHSE begins rollout of mandatory outcomes registry

Trusts must start submitting full data on surgeries which include a high-risk medical device into a new national registry by December as part of a national push to increase accountability and safety around surgery.

NHS England is launching the new mandatory medical device outcome registry this month. The new registry was created in response to Baroness Cumberlege’s “First Do No Harm” review and initial data submissions about surgeries that include a high-risk medical device will begin in June.

Details of the launch arrangements have been set out in a draft letter which HSJ has seen and understands is set to be sent to medical directors and other system leaders imminently.

Relevant procedures include those, for example, involving either a Class III device, like an implant, or a Class IIb therapeutic device, such as drug-eluting balloon catheter.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 16 May 2023

Read more

NHSE aware of concerns over surgery nearly three years before suspension

NHS England was aware of concerns about upper gastrointestinal surgery at a hospital nearly three years before the Care Quality Commission intervened to stop it being carried out, HSJ can reveal.

NHSE in the South East commissioned a report into upper GI cancer services in parts of the region in January 2020. In particular, HSJ understands the review was prompted by concerns the small number of surgeries carried out at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton meant it may be unable to comply with parts of the service specification and face difficulties maintaining an adequate surgical workforce rota.

Despite these concerns, Brighton continued to carry out upper GI surgery until the CQC suspended planned oesophagic-gastric resections last August.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 14 March 2023

Read more

NHSE announces £16m procurement of teams to support EPR delivery

NHS England said it had opened a tender worth £16 million to support provider organisations as they seek to improve their digital maturity and get electronic patient records in place by the end of March 2026. 

NHSE said its frontline digitisation programme is working with NHS secondary care trusts providing acute specialist, community, mental health and ambulance services to help them reach a minimum level of digital capability as defined by the Digital Capabilities Framework. 

To fulfil this ambition, NHSE is seeking a partner to create an experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service, also known as a Tiger Teams service, capable of supporting EPR delivery across England.

This service will be an expansion to an existing comprehensive support offer available to providers, designed to support the national demand for resource, expertise, and information necessary to successfully rollout EPRs. 

NHSE said: “Often during EPR delivery, there is a requirement for either a planned, or unplanned, specific, time-bound skill set, capable of providing a set of deliverables, problem rectification or other specialist intervention for an element of the EPR Programme.

“Trusts are finding it increasingly challenging to obtain good quality, skilled short-term resources, both from the recruitment and contingent labour market.” 

Read full story

Source: Digital Health, 22 January 2024

Read more
 

NHSE and ICBs to highlight ‘resource gaps’ in wake of stabbings

NHS England is asking systems to highlight “gaps” in resources for intensive community mental healthcare in public in the wake of the Valdo Calocane stabbings.

In a letter last week, NHSE’s mental health directors said integrated care boards must ask provider trusts for evidence to include in new reviews of their assertive and intensive community services. It said the findings and “action plans” must be presented and discussed publicly at ICB board meetings “to support transparency”. 

The letter from national director Claire Murdoch and clinical director Adrian James said the reviews must “set out potential longer-term actions, which may have resource implications”, and should “include these potential resource gaps in your review”.

It goes on: “NHS England will collate national trends and use it to inform future policy and understanding of resource requirements in this area, as well as communicate the outcomes to the Care Quality Commission and Department of Health and Social Care.”

The letter – following on from NHSE’s initial request in July – focuses on “intensive and assertive community treatment for people with severe mental health problems”, in the wake of Mr Calocane’s three killings in Nottingham last June, which have led to several local and national reviews.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 3 September 2024

Read more

NHSE and government reprimanded for ‘selective reporting’ of cancer performance

NHS England and the government have been criticised for “selective reporting” of statistics by an influential Westminster committee.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee Meg Hillier wrote to NHS England CEO Amanda Pritchard requesting “greater realism about the scale of the challenge” on cancer services.

It follows the government and NHSE claiming in a government response to the committee that they had “implemented” one of its earlier recommendations, to “bring cancer treatment back to an acceptable standard”.

In their February report on backlogs and waiting times, MPs said cancer delays were “unacceptable” and services should be recovered “as a matter of urgency”. The report also criticised NHSE for “over-optimism” when drawing up cancer and elective recovery plans.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ,  4 July 2023

Read more

NHSE admits service not on course to hit 2025-26 waiting list targets

NHS England’s elective chief has admitted the service is not on course to hit the main 2025-26 elective care targets and has “more to do” to bring performance “back in line”.

Mark Cubbon said progress to ensure 65% of elective patients are treated within 18 weeks and to reduce 52-week waiters to 1% of the overall waiting list had slowed in recent months. 

Speaking to HSJ exclusively ahead of today’s release of the official monthly statistics, he said: “We saw a very positive start to the year for RTT [referral to treatment pathway]. But while we are seeing encouraging progress in some providers with long waits, there is more to do to bring this position back in line.”

Mr Cubbon’s warning comes the day after two of the country’s leading think tanks accused ministers of using misleading indicators to suggest the NHS was recovering more strongly than it is. 

Mr Cubbon’s warning that the service was on course to miss the 2025-26 waiting list targets follows the news that four trusts have been moved into NHSE’s most challenged category for elective performance in an “exceptional” move outside the normal schedule, due to concerns among national leaders about their long waits, as revealed by HSJ  earlier in August.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 14 August 2025

Read more

NHSE admits ‘really poor’ management and HR

Persistently poor management and HR processes have been reported to NHS England’s board today.

The Freedom to Speak Up Guardian’s report from this month’s NHSE board meeting highlighted “reportedly poor experiences” of grievance processes. It also reported “an unusually large number of staff who appear to be stranded” without a suitable substantive role, in some cases after they had raised concerns or relationships had broken down in their team.

The report – authored by NHSE medical director Sir Stephen Powis and Tom Grimes, deputy director for FTSU and organisational health – said there had been a 60 per cent rise in FTSU concerns raised in 2024-25 compared to the previous year in NHSE. The service is dealing with 32 cases which are more than a year old.

It pointed out that NHSE did not carry out a staff survey in 2024, but its results for 2023 showed only 53 per cent of staff felt safe to speak up about concerns, compared with an average of 62 per cent across the NHS.

Only 36% thought NHSE would do something if concerns were raised. “We are not able to say whether this changed [since 2023] but we fully recognise that staff continue to experience barriers to speaking up,” the report added.

The strongest themes raised in concerns in 2024-25 were bullying and harassment by line managers, senior leaders and within teams; cultural leadership including lack of empowerment and collaboration; adherence to HR policies; and recruitment practices.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 17 July 2025

Related reading on the hub:

Key themes emerging from our ‘Speaking up for patient safety’ interview series

Read more

NHSE admits ‘devaluing of commissioning’

NHS England hopes to tackle “a perceived devaluing of commissioning” and enhance “the skills and professional identity of commissioners”, as part of the future of integrated care boards, a leaked document reveals.

NHSE started developing the “strategic commissioning framework” late last year – before the announcement of 50% cuts to ICBs  and its own abolition – but it is still hoping to publish the document soon.

Slides outlining its plans, seen by HSJ, say: “There has been a perceived devaluing of commissioning and a consequent variation in capability and capacity to carry it out across health economies.”

It must now, it says “set out what commissioning means now, building the skills and professional identity of commissioners to meet the challenges but also the opportunities afforded in 2025”.

The draft policy expects ICBs to become “strategic commissioners”, a role the document seeks to define, from 2026-27. It is unclear if the approach will now need to be overhauled, or accelerated, as ICBs have to make deep staffing cuts by October.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 26 March 2025

Read more

NHSE accused of cutting action to protect staff from violence

A union has accused NHS England of trying to save money at the expense of reducing violence against healthcare staff, as several national initiatives face the axe.

Despite growing concern about abuse and violence against staff, HSJ understands:

  • An NHSE-funded pilot scheme to reduce violence against ambulance staff – who are at much higher risk of violence than others – is coming to an end, with no sign of ongoing help;
  • Six other NHSE-funded violence reduction pilot schemes have come to an end or are ending, with the responsibility passing to integrated care boards and providers, and no confirmed future funding; and
  • The NHSE team responsible for violence prevention and reduction has been reduced to just two people.

Speaking about the concerns, Unison deputy head of health Alan Lofthouse said: “Cost-saving measures at NHSE have put more responsibility for violence prevention and reduction on providers and ICBs.

“But Unison is concerned that resources are just as tight at local and regional levels, and national leadership is really needed.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 20 November 2024

Read more

NHSE accused of ‘admitting defeat’ on children’s waits

NHS England guidance suggesting adult services are the priority for bringing down long waits risks “failing” children, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.

A senior paediatrician criticised advice issued by the health service on how to approach 18-week community targets introduced this month.

Ronny Cheung, officer for health services at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told HSJ that proposing to “just focus on this group [adult musculoskeletal services] and ignore children – for all of the burden [that is on them] – is a bit of an admission of defeat and failing these children”.

The NHS England guidance, which was published late last month, said: “Early progress in reducing 18-week waits is likely to be achieved through a focus on adult service lines, particularly the high-volume community musculoskeletal service line”.

Meanwhile, it said the longest waits were “largely concentrated” in children and young people’s services, and “addressing these will require sustained, long-term effort”.

But Dr Cheung said NHSE’s suggested approach rested on two misperceptions. “There’s a perception that children’s community waits are relatively speaking still quite small in comparison to the adult ones, and that’s not true,” he told HSJ. “The second slight misperception is that it is such an intractable problem that actually there’s no point in [services] focusing on that.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 23 April 2026

 

Read more

NHSE ‘worried’ about ‘rigour’ of management of neighbourhoods

NHS England is worried about the “rigour of management” of neighbourhoods, its chair has said.

Asked to summarise progress on neighbourhoods and what aspects needed most attention, Penny Dash told a conference on Wednesday: “The bit we worry about is, actually, management.

“Because quite a lot of [neighbourhood health] still feels that it’s great people doing great work, but it hasn’t got quite that rigour of the management behind it that you might want to see.”

Dr Dash also said she was concerned the health service was “still slightly struggling to create this impetus and momentum” to fulfil the ambitions of the 10-Year Health Plan.

She stressed that progress needs to be made “now”, “not least because the science is here now”, referencing things like genomics.

“There’s an awful lot happening in the live world of healthcare that we need to bottle and keep the momentum up on that,” she said.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 13 February 2026

Read more

NHSE ‘forgot the people’ when it ‘rushed’ controversial appointment rules, Mackey admits

NHS England “forgot the people” when it published controversial guidelines last month which said patients faced being removed from the waiting list if they declined two appointment dates, a senior director has admitted.

NHSE elective recovery chief Sir Jim Mackey said the guidance was drafted to address legitimate concerns from trusts, but that the process had been “rushed”.

Following Sir Jim’s comments, NHSE told HSJ the guidance, which had sparked widespead criticism including from patient groups, would not be changing. But Sir Jim said NHSE would “spend time” better understanding patients after “reflecting” on the process which had created the controversial guidelines.

Speaking at the King’s Fund annual conference, Sir Jim said: “[The guidance] was largely a response to trusts saying to us: ‘We keep offering these patients options and they won’t take them, so what do we do?’

“We rushed through a policy to try and deal with that, and in the process, I think forgot the people…We’ve reflected on that.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 1 November 2022

Read more

© 2026 Patient Safety Learning. All rights reserved.

Patient Safety Learning is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission Registration number 1180689.

×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.