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