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The deadlines and targets in the 10-Year Plan

A private funding business case for health centres, and publishing minimum employment standards, are among the first dated objectives in the 10-Year Health Plan. 

The plan was published without a chapter which had been expected to set out delivery details. However, HSJ has analysed the document and presented many of the significant dated targets and deadlines below.

This year, patients can expect publication of league tables of NHS trusts and foundation trusts. Officials must prepare a business case ahead of the autumn Budget to get permission to start agreeing private funding deals for new “neighbourhood health centres”.

Over the next three years, targets include 2% year-on-year productivity gains in the NHS; introduction of new minimum employment standards for staff; making the first integrated health organisations (IHOs) “fully operational”, and growth of the NHS App.

After that, the aim is to address doctor training bottlenecks, grow the nursing workforce and ensure the majority of NHS providers are operating in a surplus.

For 2035, the end of the 10-Year Health Plan, there are a slew of ambitious goals: every trust is expected to achieve foundation status, the majority of outpatient care will take place outside hospitals, patient and hospital care will be transformed by the use of AI and wearable tech, and health system geography will be aligned with local government.

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Source: HSJ, 4 July 2025

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Waste of time and money in hospitals makes you want to cry, NHS England chief says

NHS England’s new chief has lamented the waste of time and money within the health service and said it makes her “want to cry”.

Dr Penny Dash, chair for NHS England, said there is poor management in hospitals which means the NHS “absolutely” wastes too much money.

The former hospital doctor and management consultant, who was appointed in March to help Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s reform of the NHS and oversee the abolishment of NHS England, also said that erratic care across England – which leads to the poorest people receiving some of the worst treatment – is a “stain on our country”.

Speaking two days after the publication of the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, she told The Sunday Times: “We’ve got some GP practices where less than 2 per cent of people with diabetes get the right care but in other GP practices it’s 80 per cent. That cannot be right.

“I think it is a stain on our country that we have some of the poorest communities receiving the poorest care. We’ve got fewer GPs per head of population in the parts of the country that need them most than we do in the parts of the country that need them least.”

According to the paper, Dr Dash will use an upcoming report on patient safety, due to be published on Monday, to highlight that £6 billion a year is being lost due to poor disease management where best practice is not followed.

Addressing stories of patients suffering and missing appointments due to admin errors, Dr Dash said “you just want to cry”. She added: “There is poor management — we have operating theatres that don’t start on time and that has a really high cost.”

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Source: The Independent, 6 July 2025

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Consultancy called in to review trust's staff 'experience'

A trust grappling with concerns over culture has commissioned an independent review into staff experience.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust has brought in consultancy The Value Circle to carry out the work.

In a message to staff seen by HSJ, trust CEO Richard Parker said: “We are undertaking an independent review of what it feels like to work at DBTH to help us understand what’s working well, and what could be improved to make it even better for all of us.

“For this to really make a difference, it’s important that the independent team hears from as many colleagues as possible… everything you share will be treated in complete confidence.”

The trust confirmed it was broadening a mandatory well-led review to also look at “colleague experience”.

HSJ previously reported that the trust is in a row with the British Medical Association over the circumstances surrounding a senior clinician being off work. It has also faced criticism from a departing governor and consultants.

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Source: HSJ, 7 July 2025

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Pregnant patients received ‘inappropriate’ medication due to pharmacy coding errors

GP practices have been asked to review records after pregnant patients at some pharmacies were ‘incorrectly coded’, receiving ‘inappropriate supplies’ of medications as a result.

NHS England undertook an investigation into the recording of pregnancy status in the Optum PharmOutcomes IT system for the Pharmacy Contraception and Pharmacy First Services, after receiving incident reports.

It found that ‘multiple records’ were found where a patient ‘has been incorrectly coded as pregnant’. It also found that some patients received ‘an inappropriate supply of medication’, including where patients have been coded correctly as pregnant and should have been excluded from the supply of medication.

In a message to practices in Essex, seen by Pulse, NHS England said that a clinical advisory group confirmed that this is a patient safety incident that ‘requires action to prevent potential harm’ to impacted patients, and that patients ‘must be informed in line with duty of candour guidance’.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can now add updates from Pharmacy First, blood pressure and contraception consultations to GP patient records via the GP Connect Update Record functionality, which means that the coding errors transferred to the GP record although the functionality is not yet contractual.

NHS England told Pulse that GP practices were asked to review their records and take ‘any other action as appropriate’, but the commissioner did not confirm to Pulse how many patients have been affected by the coding errors.

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Source: Pulse, 2 July 2025

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‘Irrelevant’ training will stop next year, vows 10-Year Plan

The government’s 10-Year Health Plan has vowed to stop “repetitive” and “irrelevant” training that takes up NHS staff time.

The document said: “Our first step will be to reverse the accumulation of centrally dictated training requirements, which irritate staff and add unnecessary burdens to their working day.

“It is often repetitive, irrelevant to the work that staff do and has little or no impact on the quality of care that patients receive. By April 2026, we will have completely reformed mandatory training.

“As we transform the centre and push power out to staff and citizens, we will work with providers and professionals to identify more opportunities to ease the burden on frontline workers, remove central edicts, and allow a more flexible approach to workforce development.”

The plan also commits to using technology to increase clinical capacity, including through UK-registered health professionals working abroad to provide remote services to NHS patients.

NHS England has estimated that unnecessary mandatory training is wasting more than 100,000 days of staff time every year.

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Source: HSJ, 3 July 2025

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'Pictures of health' cut skin cancer check waits

Digital imaging of suspected skin cancers has dramatically cut waiting times for diagnosis and treatment in Nottinghamshire.

Clinical photographers in parts of the county now see patients referred by GPs typically within a couple of days, rather than them having to wait what used to be sometimes weeks to see a consultant for just an initial appointment.

The imaging includes using artificial intelligence (AI) smartphone software, which then sees pictures sent to a consultant dermatologist to assess, without needing to meet the patient.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the approach was freeing up specialists' time to focus on surgery.

Fiona Hayward-Lyon, from Farndon in Nottinghamshire, is one of nearly 2,000 patients seen by the trust with suspected skin cancer who have benefitted from faster access to diagnosis.

The service was fully introduced in June 2024 and one year on, has been described as a "big success" by the trust.

Consultant dermatologist Dr Ritu Singla said the photography service allowed medics to reassure patients sooner if they did not have cancer.

"We can rule out lots of benign [non-cancerous] lesions, which are the bulk of cases," she said.

"It also enables us to start treatment sooner for those patients where cancer has been diagnosed."

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Source: BBC News, 3 July 2025

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National virtual ward system promised in 10-Year Plan

The government will procure a single virtual ward system to underpin its promised “neighbourhood health service”, the 10-Year Health Plan has said.

The document said: “We will undertake national procurement for a new platform available to all NHS provider organisations. This will include the ability to remotely monitor patients, with data flowing through to the NHS App and Single Patient Record – enabling proactive management of patients to become the new normal.”

Virtual wards, also known as hospital at home, have been widely trialled across the NHS already, with some research pointing to reduced hospital admissions and financial savings.

There was no date given for when this would be launched.

The news clarifies the digital underpinning of “neighbourhood health services” and which bodies would commission it, following the downgrading of integrated care boards.

The plan said the new system would enable “proactive management of patients to become the new normal, reaching out at the first signs of deterioration to prevent an emergency admission to hospital”.

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Source: HSJ, 3 July 2025

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Twelve key takeaways from Labour’s 10-year NHS plan

The 10-year NHS plan aims to make healthcare more digital, focus on preventing ill health and provide more services locally, rather than in hospitals. It will greatly expand the NHS app and increase the use of AI and other technology.

Structural changes aim to bring routine healthcare closer to patients, with the aim that most outpatient care will happen outside hospitals, while new neighbourhood health centres will provide most services so that acute hospitals can focus on looking after the most unwell.

The main measures include:

1. NHS app becoming a “doctor” in patients’ pockets

2. Patient league tables from this summer

3. Integrated digital patient records

4. Patients referring themselves for hearing tests, counselling, podiatry and back pain

5. Digitised “red book” system of recording baby and child health records

6. Greater use of AI and genomic sequencing and free wearable devices in some areas

7. One million people being offered a personal health budget by 2030, with everyone eligible by 2035

8. Community health hubs providing a “one-stop shop” for integrated care

9. Treatment targets brought back and promises to end “corridor care”

10. Specialist mental health emergency departments

11. Expanded access to weight loss jabs and anti-obesity measures

12. More NHS staff

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Source: The Guardian, 3 July 2025

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Lucian Leape, whose work spurred patient safety in medicine, dies at 94

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the IHI Lucian Leape Institute (LLI) honour the life and legacy of patient safety luminary Lucian Leape, MD who has died at the age of 94.

A giant in health care, Dr. Leape is widely considered the parent of the modern patient safety movement. His participation in the landmark Harvard Medical Practice Study in the 1980s, and the subsequent publication of its findings in 1991, helped establish the field of patient safety. He and his colleagues pulled back the curtain on the true scope of adverse events and preventable error in health care. Dr. Leape devoted four decades of his life and career to raising awareness of the magnitude of preventable medical harm, and more importantly, building communities and mechanisms for action to eliminate harm to patients and the workforce.

Dr. Leape also left his mark as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality of Health Care in America Committee, which published the seminal works in the patient safety movement, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001). He was the founding chairman of the LLI, which was formed in 2007 by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF, which merged with IHI in 2017) to provide a strategic vision for improving patient safety. He was an active member of the think tank bearing his name through the remainder of his life.

Lucian Leape was both a literal and figurative tower of courage and transparency who challenged healthcare’s status quo acceptance that harm to patients was an acceptable, collateral consequence of healthcare. He eschewed the notion that safety should primarily depend on, or be blamed on, individuals who provide direct patient care. Instead, under his direction, the LLI pursued five transforming, yet under addressed system-level concepts deemed essential for safety including medical education reform, accelerating care integration, workforce safety and joy and meaning in work, partnering with patients, and transparency.

Lucian’s spirit and influence live on in the continued work of the LLI, the IHI, and the countless individuals and institutions that relentlessly pursue safe, person-centered care delivered in psychologically safe, fair and just, and respectful environments. His groundbreaking insights illuminated pathways to healing broken systems, harvesting the best of leaders and the workforce, and ensuring the centeredness of patients first amid the complexity of health care. While we mourn the loss of a remarkable mentor, colleague, and friend, we celebrate the gift of his life and career. His indelible influence will continue to shape our commitment to patient safety for generations.

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Source: Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2 July 2025

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10-Year Plan published without delivery chapter

The government’s 10-Year Health Plan has been published without a planned chapter on how the changes it proposes will be delivered.

The draft of the Plan seen by HSJ last week included an index page which listed a ninth chapter entitled “Change begins”. The published Plan contains just eight chapters plus an introduction.

HSJ understands the delivery chapter was due to be written by the Department of Health and Social Care’s lead non-executive director, and former health secretary, Alan Milburn. Its omission has surprised many very senior NHS figures close to the plan’s development who had expected it to be included.

One told HSJ that the delivery chapter would have “focused heavily on the immediate tasks” to be undertaken by the service in the next three years and therefore might have “looked a little odd within a 10-Year Plan”.

They added: “You can be certain that there will be [a delivery plan] though.”

One suggestion is that the delivery plan might be incorporated into the NHS England planning guidance for 2026-27, which it is proposing to publish much earlier than in previous years, possibly as early as September.

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Source: HSJ, 3 July 2025

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Women poisoned by fake Botox

An aesthetic beautician left one woman fighting for her life and several others seriously ill in hospital after injecting them with Toxpia, an illegal Botox-type anti-wrinkle treatment. 

The patch over Kaylie Bailey's left eye is a daily reminder of when her beauty treatment nearly killed her.

The 36-year-old mum-of-three from Peterlee, County Durham, had paid Gemma Gray £75 for three "Botox" injections, half of what it had cost on a previous visit - the bargain turned out to be too good to be true.

Within days, Ms Bailey was struggling to see.

Doctors at Sunderland Royal Hospital were initially baffled and diagnosed her with ptosis, an eye condition characterised by the drooping of the upper eyelid, and told her to go home to rest.

The hospital trust said that when Ms Bailey was discharged she had been advised to visit her GP if her condition worsened, and it had been explained to her that her symptoms were probably related to the treatment she had had.

It added that botulinum toxicity was a very rare condition "not seen by the majority of doctors during their careers".

But when her condition deteriorated over the following days, Ms Bailey rushed back to hospital where this time she was told she had botulism, a rare but life-threatening condition caused by a bacterium.

By that point, she was one of 28 people to have been diagnosed with the toxic poisoning in north-east England after having anti-wrinkle jabs.

Ms Bailey stopped breathing and required resuscitation.

She spent three days on the Intensive Care Unit and was treated with an anti-toxin.

The Department of Health and Social Care said people's lives were being put at risk by "inadequately trained operators in the cosmetic sector" and the government was looking into new regulations.

"We urge anyone considering cosmetic procedures to consider the possible health impacts and find a reputable, insured and qualified practitioner," a spokesperson said.

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Source: BBC News, 3 July 2025

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Eight in ten trusts more likely to appoint white staff to jobs

Eight in 10 trusts are significantly more likely to appoint White applicants than Black and minority ethnic applicants after shortlisting, new NHS England data has revealed.

The latest data, from the 2024 NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) report, which covers the 12 months to March 2024, reveals this metric applied at 80% of trusts.  

It has worsened from the previous year (76%) and the year before that (71%). 

While the London region has seen year-on-year improvement in this area, NHS England said it has “progressively deteriorated in the Midlands,” while there has been a “marked deterioration” in the North West .

The report said: “Recruitment from interview remains the most difficult to change metric, with the national likelihood ratio remaining broadly unchanged since the inception of the WRES in 2016.”

The relative likelihood of staff from minority ethnic backgrounds entering formal disciplinary processes compared to White staff has also worsened.

According to NHSE, just over half (51%) of trusts reported that these staff were 1.25 times more likely to enter these processes than their White colleagues.

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Starmer outlines plan to shift NHS care from hospitals to new health centres

The NHS will shift a huge amount of care from hospitals into new community health centres to bring treatment closer to people’s homes and cut waiting times, Keir Starmer will pledge on Thursday.

The prime minister will outline radical plans to give patients in England much easier access to GPs, scans and mental health support in facilities that are open 12 hours a day, six days a week.

The health service must “reform or die”, he will say, when he unveils his 10-year health plan.

Experts, however, said the planned revolution in the way the NHS operates risked being undermined by staff shortages, tight public finances, a lack of premises in which to host one-stop shop-style “neighbourhood health services” and a public backlash at hospitals being downgraded.

“Our 10-year health plan will fundamentally rewire and future-proof our NHS so that it puts care on people’s doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place,” Starmer is expected to say at a launch event in London with the health secretary, Wes Streeting.

“That means giving everyone access to GPs, nurses and wider support all under one roof in their neighbourhood – rebalancing our health system so that it fits around patients’ lives, not the other way round.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 July 2025

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NICE to remove approval from scores of drugs for first time

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will withdraw its backing for a large number of drugs and other interventions which now offer poor value for money in an unprecedented move set to be revealed in tomorrow’s 10-Year Health Plan, HSJ has learned.

Such a move would end the NHS’s statutory mandate to supply the “retired” medicines, treatments, medical devices and procedures.

At present, NICE does not remove its approval for interventions which have successfully completed its appraisal process, even when they are no longer recommended in guidelines as being clinically and/or cost-effective. This new policy will see those interventions not recommended having their NICE approval withdrawn.

Hundreds of technologies have been approved by NICE since its formation in 1999. HSJ understands scores could be retired following re-evaluation over the next few years.

The NICE business plan adds that technologies which remain recommended will be prioritised by ability to “maximise population health…expand access to treatments [and release] cost savings”.

The 10-Year Health Plan will also seek to address variation in prescribing practice across the country by proposing the creation of a “single national formulary” (SNF) by 2028. This is intended to replace the local formularies which the plan says “do not make sense” in the context of ensuring patients receive consistent, high-quality care across the country, HSJ understands.

The plan, due to be published tomorrow, will also confirm that some digital technologies approved by NICE will be nationally reimbursed.

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Source: HSJ, 2 July 2025

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US Joint Commission to cut more than 700 hospital standards in accreditation overhaul

The Joint Commission has unveiled an overhaul to its healthcare accreditation and certification process that will cut hundreds of requirements for hospitals, streamline patient safety practices and give stakeholders as well as the public a clearer look into what’s expected of an accredited facility.

Called “Accreditation 360: The New Standard,” the changes are described by the organization as “the most significant, comprehensive evolution of Joint Commission’s accreditation process since 1965.”

Headlining the effort is the removal of 714 standing requirements from the hospital accreditation programme, which builds upon the 2023 initiative to cut 400 other requirements. And, starting in July, the Joint Commission said it will have its standards available online for public access and search. 

“Accreditation 360 directly responds to what this moment demands,” Joint Commission President and CEO Jonathan Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., said in the announcement. “Designed by a team of operationally experienced healthcare leaders, this new model removes standards whose time has passed, and we are introducing a suite of novel tools for benchmarking and performance support. Reducing burden helps busy clinicians and healthcare organizations focus on what matters most: delivering the safest, highest-quality and most compassionate healthcare possible.”

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Source: Fierce Healthcare, 30 June 2025

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Almost one in five NHS operations now carried out in private hospitals

Nearly one in five NHS operations are now being carried out in private hospitals or clinics, new analysis reveals.

Data from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) revealed that private facilities delivered the equivalent of 2,859 NHS procedures every working day in April.

The figure is an increase of over 60% compared to the same month in 2019, and a record high.

Overall, the independent sector is delivering 10% of all NHS planned care, up from 8% before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IHPN also said that the number of referrals it had received also reached a new high, with private providers receiving 7,162 referrals each working day in April.

David Hare, chief executive of the IHPN, said that this latest data “shows the independent sector’s increasingly pivotal role in delivering frontline NHS care”.

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Source: The Independent, 2 July 2025

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Women over 65 still at risk from cancer from HPV and should be offered cervical screening

Routine cervical screening should be offered to women aged 65 and over as they are still at heightened risk of cancer from human papillomavirus (HPV), according to research.

Despite it being a preventable disease, there were about 660,000 cases of cervical cancer and 350,000 deaths from it worldwide in 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

HPV is responsible for about 95% of cervical cancer, which occurs when abnormal cells develop in the lining of the cervix and grow, eventually forming a tumour.

WHO’s global strategy on cervical cancer states that by 2030, all countries should vaccinate 90% of girls with the HPV vaccine by 15, screen 70% of women and treat 90% of those with cervical disease. Modelling suggests this would prevent 62m deaths and a cumulative 74m new cases of cervical cancer by 2120.

Screening programmes vary from country to country, but most guidelines recommend stopping cervical screening after the age of 65 if previous test results have been normal.

Yet global cases of cervical cancer among people over 65 have been rising: in 2022, worldwide there were 157,182 new cases and 124,269 deaths from the disease among women aged 65 or older.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 July 2025

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Thousands of cancer patients denied key drug due to ‘unfair’ NHS rulings, says charity

Thousands of women battling advanced breast cancer could be denied access to crucial life-extending medication due to an "unfair" assessment process for NHS drug approval.

Charity Breast Cancer Now has issued an urgent plea to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, demanding "immediate action" to dismantle current spending restraints.

The organisation is also calling for the NHS spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to lower its threshold for what it classifies as a "very severe health condition."

NICE's severity modifier, introduced in 2022, is designed to give greater weight to treatments for more severe illnesses, increasing the likelihood of their recommendation for NHS use.

However, Breast Cancer Now argues that the current criteria are too stringent, potentially preventing thousands of women from accessing vital therapies.

According to NICE, the process raises the threshold for what it considers to be a cost-effective treatment, meaning it can give more expensive drugs the green light.

However, a new report from Breast Cancer Now claims the system means women with incurable breast cancer with months to live may be told their condition does not qualify for the most severe rating.

The call comes after it emerged that the life-extending drug Enhertu will not be made available for women with incurable breast cancer on the NHS in England and Wales.

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Source: The Independent, 2 July 2025

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Cass review: how has report affected care for transgender young people?

At the heart of the controversy about how to meet the needs of young people questioning their gender has been the huge rise in referrals to the Tavistock – previously the only dedicated clinic in England and Wales treating children with gender dysphoria.

The clinic was closed one month before the Cass review into youth gender identity services, commissioned by NHS England and led by the British paediatrician Hilary Cass, which found that children had been “let down” by the NHS amid a “toxic” public discourse.

Her report recommended a significant shift in treatment away from medical intervention towards a more holistic approach to care, including therapy and treatment for coexisting mental ill health, neurodivergence or family issues, and to be provided by a network of regional hubs rather than concentrated in one location.

Fourteen months later and the exponential rise in referrals for NHS care has halted, with figures showing a sharp reduction from up to 280 referrals a month at the Tavistock to between 20 and 30 a month this year, a 10th of the earlier rate.

James Palmer, the medical director for specialised services at NHS England, who is responsible for implementing the recommendations of Cass, suggests a number of factors are behind the decrease. Young people can now only be referred for the youth gender service through mental health or paediatric specialists, rather than by a GP.

Palmer also believes the reduction is partly because of the “change in philosophy” brought in by Cass about hormone treatments. Her review concluded there was “remarkably weak evidence” that puberty blockers (prescribed to give young people experiencing distress and dysphoria about their bodies time to consider their next move) and cross-sex hormones (which masculinise or feminise people’s appearances) improve young people’s wellbeing and there was concern they may harm health.

Cass prompted a temporary ban on the use of puberty-blocking drugs, which was extended indefinitely by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, last December. Cross-sex hormones may be prescribed to 16- to 18-year-olds in rare cases but in practice none have been since the review.

“There’s also an impact – completely immeasurable – of the change in stance in this country and around the world,” Palmer adds. The Cass review was clear, he argues, that even social transition is “not a neutral act” and better information is needed about the outcomes for children who do so, as well as support for parents and schools. “But there is also an impact from the global political environment which has become less accepting of trans people and gender-questioning young people.”

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Source: The Guardian, 2 July 2025

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Covid inquiry hears of care home 'slaughter'

A civil servant's assertion that there was a "generational slaughter within care homes" in the early days of the pandemic is a phrase that "chimes with the experience of thousands of our families", the Covid inquiry has heard.

Pete Weatherby, barrister for the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said the phrase might seem an exaggeration but it highlighted issues the inquiry must address.

His opening statement came on the first day of the sixth part of the Covid inquiry which will focus on the impact of the pandemic on care services for elderly and disabled people.

The government has said it is committed to learning lessons from the inquiry.

Mr Donaldson's evidence also describes "complete chaos" in the Department of Health and Social Care when he started working there in April 2020, soon after the start of the pandemic.

Nearly 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, many of them in the early weeks of the pandemic.

Key questions the families hope the inquiry will answer include why the decision was made in March 2020 to rapidly discharge some hospital patients into care homes.

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Source: BBC News, 30 June 2025

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Why girls are less likely to be put on transplant waiting lists than boys

Academics have found that some children in need of a kidney transplant are facing inequalities in their care.

Researchers set out to examine whether inequalities exist in access to kidney transplantation among children in the UK by analysing the UK Renal Registry and NHS Blood and Transplant data between 1996 and 2020.

The team at the University of Bristol found that Black children were less likely to be put on the transplant waiting list, as were those from more deprived backgrounds.

Dr Alice James, lead author of the study, said the gender disparity in wait-listing may reflect “implicit gender biases in clinical decision-making, differences in parental advocacy, or variation in disease presentation and severity between sexes.”

“There may also be social factors influencing clinicians’ assumptions about transplant suitability or family engagement in the transplantation process,” she said.

“While evidence is limited in paediatric populations, adult studies suggest that women are often perceived as less suitable candidates due to comorbidities or psychosocial factors— perceptions that may inadvertently extend to female children.”

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Source: The Independent, 30 June 2025

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ICBs exempt from performance regime

Integrated care boards will not be put into performance “segments” in 2025-26, while they go through major reorganisation and job cuts, NHS England has decided.

Its NHS Oversight Framework for 2025-26, finalised on Thursday after more than a year of development, says integrated care boards should this year focus on cutting their running costs by 50 per cent alongside delivery, and changing their role to match the model ICB blueprint.

ICBs already subject to the “recovery support programme” intervention will stay in it, and be monitored by NHS England.

But while trusts will be given a one (best) to five (worst) performance segment, ICBs will this year not be segmented.

This NOF will apply for one year, the document says, and be changed for 2026-27 based on the 10-Year Health Plan and the new “operating model” it will propose. It suggests it will be applied to ICBs again in the future, but other documents suggest they may be subject to a separate commissioning capability regime.

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Source: HSJ, 30 June 2025

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New DHSC-NHSE top team structure revealed

The top-team structure of the Department of Health and Social Care – as it takes over directly running the NHS – is being revealed to staff today.

The new arrangements will be introduced over the next few months, in preparation for NHS England being formally abolished in coming years.

There will be 13 director generals, plus five “national priority programmme” leads, and seven regional directors, who will have the status of DGs.

Several will report jointly to the DHSC permanent secretary, Samantha Jones, and to the NHS chief executive, Jim Mackey, who will take on the status of a permanent secretary in the department.

FutureDHSCseniorstructure.png.35914771b72081f31de7889c8a35c60b.png

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Source: HSJ, 26 June 2025

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Ex-leaders of Letby trust arrested

Three former senior leaders of the trust where babies were murdered by Lucy Letby have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

Cheshire police confirmed the three, who were part of the leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust in 2015 and 2016, were arrested on 30 June.

All three have subsequently been bailed pending further enquiries, the police confirmed in a statement.

Letby was convicted in 2023 of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder others, in 2015 and 2016, while working in the neonatal unit at the hospital.

Detective superintendent Paul Hughes, senior investigating officer at Cheshire police, said in a statement today: “In October 2023, following the lengthy trial and subsequent conviction of Lucy Letby, Cheshire Constabulary launched an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

“This focuses on senior leadership and their decision making to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities.

“In March 2025, the scope of the investigation widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter.

“This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.

“It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.”

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Source: HSJ, 1 July 2025

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Parents face hurdles vaccinating children

Parents are being prevented from vaccinating their children because of obstacles such as difficulty booking appointments and a lack of reminders on what jabs are needed and when, a report suggests.

Child health experts say "practical or logistical reasons" are discouraging families more often than fears over the vaccines.

Vaccine uptake in the UK has fallen over the last decade, leading to outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.

UK health officials say they are committed to working with the NHS to improve vaccine uptake among children.

Since 2022, no childhood vaccine in the UK has met the World Health Organisation target of 95% of children vaccinated, which ensures protection of vulnerable people. As a result, measles and other preventable diseases have made a comeback.

A commission of experts from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) spent a year looking at why.

Dr Helen Stewart, officer for health improvement at RCPCH, said the steady decline in vaccination rates in a wealthy country like the UK was "extremely concerning".

But she said vaccine hesitancy, when parents waver over getting their children vaccinated, "is only part of a very complex picture".

"The reality is that there are many who simply need better support and easier access to appointments," Dr Stewart said.

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Source: BBC News, 1 July 2025

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