‘Blizzard’ of NHSE asks is ‘deluging’ trusts, warns chair

Trusts are battling a “blizzard” of new tasks from the centre as officials are “making it up as they go along” in the wake of the 10-Year Health Plan, a chair has complained.

Andrew George, chair of Oxleas Foundation Trust, last week told his board he believed some trusts, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care were “making it up as they go along to some extent” following major reforms pledged for the health service.

He further said that the “earned autonomy” promised to high-performing trusts in the plan was not yet a reality, with organisations being sent a “deluge” of documents to look through in wake of the 10YHP.

Professor George said the promise that top trusts would “be left to get on with it to carry on performing highly” did not feel like the current reality.

He said: “There’s a deluge of stuff that we are being sent to confirm, to check and to everything else. So at the moment it doesn’t feel like that.”

Professor George added: “Stuff that’s happening at pace is therefore coming as a blizzard and is perhaps not as well thought through as it would be more conventionally done."

Oxleas chief executive Ify Okocha also echoed these sentiments, criticising the pace at which trusts had been asked to come up with five-year plans, as set out in guidance issued by NHS England.

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Source: HSJ, 10 September 2025