The Health Bill 2026-27 is a new piece of Government legislation which aims to:

• Improve patient safety and experience through a new single patient record, enabling joined-up, proactive care and empowering patients.
• Put power and resources in the hands of frontline NHS organisations by abolishing NHS England and stripping back national bureaucracy.
• Clarify the role of local health bodies, giving them real flexibility to design and deliver health services to best meet the needs of their local populations.

Department of Health and Social Care

The UK Government has published a collection of resources about the Health Bill, including fact sheets on the following topics:

• Single Patient Record
• Role and functions of the restructured Department of Health and Social Care
• Data and digital functions
• Oversight of the health system
• Integrated Care Boards as strategic commissioners
• Providers
• Patient safety
• Patient voice

Patient Safety Learning

Following the announcement of the NHS Modernisation Bill in the King’s Speech 2026, Patient Safey Learning published an article highlighting six key takeaways from this speech from a patient safety perspective. This includes reflections on specific provisions in the Bill including:

• Transferring the Health Services Safety Investigations Body functions to the Care Quality Commission.
• Creating a new single patient record.
• Transferring the functions of Healthwatch England to the Department of Health and Social Care and creating a new Patient Experience Directorate in the Department of Health and Social Care.
• Abolish NHS England and making several changes to the role of Integated Care Boards.

The King’s Fund

The health and care charity and think tank The King’s Fund have created on a new area on their website where they are sharing all their latest analysis, commentary and responses on the Health Bill as this legislation developments. This includes an article by their Chief Executive Sarah Woolnough setting out five tests for the NHS Modernisation Bill.

Nuffield Health

In this article, Becks Fisher, Director of Research and Policy at the Nuffield Trust, discusses key issues raised by the NHS Modernisation Bill. He considers this in the context of the departure of Wes Streeting MP as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and his replacement with James Murray MP.

Health Service Journal

In this episode of the Health Service Journal Health Check Podcast, Annabelle Collins and Dave West are joined by Hugh Alderwick, Health Foundation director of policy and research, to help unpick the 200-page legislation and what it will mean for the service.

Carnall Farrar (CF)

In a helpful infographic, CF’s snapshot of the NHS Modernisation Bill focuses on the provisions most relevant to NHS leaders and executives: what is changing, when, and what it may mean in practice.

The 10 Year Health Plan for England identifies four major challenges shaping the future of healthcare in England:

• An ageing population living with multiple health conditions.
• Changes in illness, with more than a quarter of the population having a long-term health condition.
• Higher public expectations of how the NHS should provide services.
• Increases in cost, with health spending in England meeting the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average but achieving worse outcomes.

To take on these challenges, and act on the opportunities available, the 10 Year Health Plan reimagines the NHS through three radical shifts:

1.    Hospital to community- envisioned by the initiation of “a historic expansion of provision in people’s neighbourhoods. By bringing more integrated services into local communities, patients will have more power to tailor care to their individual needs and more convenient access.”

2.    Analogue to digital - transforming the NHS “from being a bricks and mortar service to a digitally led one, where patients can access care online and offline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. By embracing the digital revolution, we will give patients the ability to control their appointments, choose their providers and access the help they need to manage their health and their care.”

3.    Sickness to prevention - with a goal to “halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, while increasing it for everyone, and to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. This will boost our health, but also ensure the future sustainability of the NHS.”

Commentaries on the Plan and its implications for the future of health and care

Below are several different perspectives on the 10 Year Health Plan for England that we have added to the hub:

Patient Safety Learning

In our response to the Plan we highlighted that although it disappointingly does not recognise patient safety as one of its core themes, it does set out a welcome ambition to tackle some of the key underlying causes of avoidable harm. We sought to elaborate on this, setting out why patient safety needs to be at the core of the delivery of this new Plan. Much of the focus of our response concerns two of its three radical shifts: “Hospital to community” and “Analogue to digital”. Our response notes:

• In seeking to create a Neighbourhood Health Service, service redesign and plans should ensure that patient and staff safety is core to how care is delivered, unnecessary hospital admission is prevented and early discharge is supported.
• If the NHS is to become a fully digitally enabled service, patient safety will need to be at the heart of the introduction, implementation and operationalisation of new technologies and innovations, particularly AI-enabled care.
• A strong emphasis is placed on patient choice in the Plan, but relatively little is said about the role of patient and public involvement in shaping healthcare services—beyond engagement through new digital portals. Coupled with the proposed centralisation of patient experience functions within the Department of Health and Social Care there are valid concerns this could weaken the strength and independence of the patient voice.
• The absence of considering and responding to problems with NHS culture is a significant oversight in the 10 Year Health Plan. If the healthcare system is to truly be transformed over the next decade, then we cannot simply proceed by ignoring these issues or assuming they will resolve themselves.
• The Plan does not address the absence of systematic approaches to sharing learning about avoidable harm, the inadequacy of joined up approaches and user-centred design in solution development.

Read more here.

From analogue to digital: Tackling inequality and digital exclusion in the future NHS

In this blog, Katie Heard from the Good Things Foundation considers the digital implications of the 10 Year Health Plan. She reflects on the benefits and risks for those who are digitally excluded, what more can be done and how existing resources can help support further progress.

Read more here.

Compassionate leadership and the 10 Year Health Plan: address moral injury

In this blog Naja Felter and Alistair Thomson, noting the recognition of moral injury in the 10 Year Health Plan, make the case for compassionate leadership. They highlight there is ample evidence for the impact of this style of leadership in health and social care, including higher quality care, greater patient satisfaction, lower levels of workforce stress and burnout, and improved financial organisational performance.

Read more here.

Dazed and confused? Policy ideas behind the 10-Year Health Plan

In this article, Phoebe Dunn, Nicholas Mays and Hugh Alderwick ask whether the 10-Year Health Plan is a coherent blueprint for ‘reimagining’ the NHS, or a collection of ideas pulling in different directions? They identify five policy ideas that seem to guide key proposals in the Plan, draw on evidence about their potential impact, and stand back to see what it all adds up to for the NHS.

Read more here.

Patient Power: energising the 10-Year Health Plan through patient partnership

This is a video of a Patients Association online event that considered what needs to be done to ensure patient partnership is in the foundations of the 10 Year Health Plan. The session explored what meaningful patient agency looks like in practice, drawing on real-life insights from the Patients Association helpline and focus groups.

Watch the recording.

How will waiting times in community health services affect the shift towards neighbourhood health?

Community services are under growing strain, with more than 1.1 million people waiting for care, and the steepest rise among children and young people. In this Quality Watch article, Jessica Morris notes that focus to date has largely been on efforts to improve waits for hospital care, but as neighbourhood health services are rolled out, addressing pressures on community services will be essential if the ‘hospital to community’ shift is to become a reality.

Read more here.

Podcast: Alan Milburn on the 10-year health plan

In this podcast, The Health Foundation speaks to Alan Milburn about the future of the NHS and his thoughts on the government’s 10-Year Health Plan. Alan was Secretary of State for Health from 1999 to 2003, during the Blair governments, with his tenure seeing the development of the NHS Plan (2000) and record levels of investment. As Lead Non-Executive Director at the Department of Health and Social Care, Alan also had a hand in writing and developing the new plan. 

Read more here.

What does the NHS 10 Year Plan mean for dementia?

In this article, Alzheimer’s Research UK reflects on what the Plan means for people affected by dementia. It considers how it will potentially impact dementia diagnosis, new treatments, improving brain health and prevention.

Read more here.

Share your views with us

What is your opinion on the 10 Year Health Plan?

In the coming months we would like to feature more perspectives on how ideas and proposals flowing from this Plan are impacting how the NHS approaches patient safety. We would welcome your views and experiences of this. You can comment below (sign up to the hub first for free) or email the team directly at content@pslhub.org to share your views.

Verdict: Not on course to be delivered.

Between 2018 and 2023, we will have raised funding for the NHS by 29% 

Verdict: Depends on the Prime Minister’s decisions.

50,000 more nurses by the end of this parliament

Verdict: Could still be delivered.

6,000 more doctors in general practice and 26,000 more primary care health professionals by the end of this parliament

Verdict: not on course to be delivered for doctors; on course to be delivered for primary care health professionals.

50 million extra general practice appointments a year by 2024/25

Verdict: Not on course to be delivered, but may be achievable.

Reform social care to give every person the dignity and security that they deserve

Verdict: Not on course to be delivered.

Findings

Cultures and behaviours

• The review found that the current cultural environment does not lend itself to the collaborative leadership needed to deliver health and social care in a changing and diverse environment. Leadership is seen as a job role rather than a characteristic that runs through the workforce. Staff respond reactively rather than constructively and respond to high levels of pressure from above. There is also a lack of accountability and authority in some areas.
• Although not universal, acceptance of discrimination, bullying, blame cultures and responsibility avoidance has almost become normalised in certain parts of the system.
• Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), which is about respectful relationships and underpins a wider culture of respect, is partial, inconsistent and elective. In some places it is tokenistic.
• There is a lack of psychological safety to speak up and listen, despite progress being made. The Freedom to Speak Up initiative can be perceived as just relating to whistleblowing rather than also organisational improvement.

Standards and structures

• The review found that management tend not to be perceived as a professional activity and there is a lack of universal standards for management competence and behaviour.
• There are inequities in how managers are perceived, valued and trained and inconsistencies in appraisals.

Regulation and oversight

• There is a positive view that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) can influence collaboration across the whole of health and social care through its inspections, and welcome its increasing focus on teams and systems. However, there is sometimes an over-emphasis on metrics which can be counter-productive.
• The review welcomes the shift in emphasis from a punitive model to a remedial one.

Clinical leadership

• The review found incidences of the flawed assumption that simply acquiring seniority in a particular profession translates into leadership skills and knowledge. Doctors are often not properly trained or equipped for leadership roles.
• Allied health professionals often highlighted that they felt their career opportunities in management were limited.
• Management and leadership training should be an integral part of all clinical training pathways.

Leadership delivery in the future

• The move towards health and care integration and the work currently underway to merge the arms-length bodies and create a new NHSE offers the opportunity for a fresh approach to preparing leaders and managers in the future.

Recommendations

1. Targeted interventions on collaborative leadership and organisational values

• A new, national entry-level induction for all who join health and social care.
• A new, national mid-career programme for managers across health and social care.

2. Positive equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) action

• Embed inclusive leadership practice as the responsibility of all leaders.
• Commit to promoting equal opportunity and fairness standards.
• More stringently enforce existing measures to improve equal opportunities and fairness.
• Enhance CQC role in ensuring improvement in EDI outcomes.

3. Consistent management standards delivered through accredited training

• A single set of unified, core leadership and management standards for managers.
• Training and development bundles to meet these standards.

4. A simplified, standard appraisal system for the NHS

• A more effective, consistent and behaviour-based appraisal system, of value to both the individual and the system.

5. A new career and talent management function for managers

• Creation of a new career and talent management function at regional level, which oversees and provides structure to NHS management careers.

6. Effective recruitment and development of non-executive directors (NEDs)

• Establishment of an expanded, specialist non-executive talent and appointments team.

7. Encouraging top talent into challenged parts of the system

• Improve the package of support and incentives in place to enable the best leaders and managers to take on some of the most difficult roles.

All 7 recommendations have been accepted by the government and publication of the report will be followed by a plan committing to implementing the recommendations.

Early Day Motions are motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons for which no day has been fixed - as such very few are debated. They are used to put on record the views of individual MPs or to draw attention to specific events or campaigns. By attracting the signatures of other MPs, they can be used to demonstrate the level of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view.[1]

Early Day Motion 864 - Researching and supporting people with long Covid-19 symptoms

This Early Day Motion was tabled by Andrew Gywnne MP and sponsored by Layla Moran MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Tony Lloyd MP, Clive Lewis MP and Rosie Duffield MP. It reads as follows:

That this House recognises that around 10 per cent of people experience prolonged illness after covid-19 and calls upon the Government to urgently collect and regularly report on the number of those living with long covid by following up on those with confirmed or clinical diagnoses of covid-19; notes that research into the disease should encompass both those who were and were not hospitalised to understand the true scale of the morbidity of the virus; and calls on the Government to swiftly consider and implement measures to support those living with long covid, including offering information and incentives to employers to retain their recovering staff who may or may not have confirmed cases due to limitations in testing, and ensuring that the NHS can support patients in their longer term recovery.

References

1. UK Parliament, What are Early Day Motions?, Last Accessed 15 September 2020.

Some points of interest from the debate included:

• Baroness Cumberlege noting concerns that "rumours are absolutely rife of a ritual burial" of the First Do No Harm report.
• She noted plans to create a parliamentary group called First Do No Harm to ensure the recommendations of the report were implemented.
• She stated her intention to put down an amendment to the Bill to include a proposal to appoint a patient safety commissioner, one of the key recommendations of the report.
• In his closing comments Lord Bethell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department of Health and Social Care), noted that this amendment had support from a number of members of the House of Lords and that they had sent "a clear message to the Government and the public that patient safety must be paramount in how we regulate medicines and medical devices".

Follow the link below for the full transcript.