NHS England: Next steps on planning and priorities for 2026/27 (1 April 2026)

Summary

Letter from Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive, NHS England covering priorities and a look ahead for the new financial year.

Content

Key points

• Outpatient transformation – shifting away from traditional outpatient models through a major expansion of Advice and Guidance and a reduction in unnecessary follow‑ups.
• A step‑change in reducing hospital bed‑days for highest‑risk cohorts – with neighbourhoods playing a central role in implementing proactive care models for high‑risk groups.
•  Scheduling and access reform for urgent care – making it easier for patients to book urgent care appointments in GP practices, urgent treatment centres, or other appropriate settings, reducing avoidable ED attendances.
• Technology‑enabled productivity improvements – expanding the deployment of Ambient Voice Technology and a suite of tools to improve theatre utilisation, discharge flow, RTT validation, community waiting lists, Advice and Guidance, electronic prescribing in all trusts, and crisis response.
• The NHS App – accelerating efforts to expand the role of the App as the digital front door into the NHS, supporting more convenient and effective triage and navigation for patients.
• Payment reform – realigning the payment system to the service changes you are seeking to deliver, including new payment models for urgent and emergency care.
• Quality – putting quality back at the heart of everything we do, including the publication of a new quality strategy, the development of modern service frameworks focused on cardiovascular disease, sepsis, serious mental illness, frailty and dementia, children and young people, and palliative and end-of-life care, and testing new delivery models for secondary prevention to tackle variations in the uptake of high-impact CVD and diabetes interventions.
• Capability building and a focus on our people – launching the new Leadership College, which will be the most radical change to leadership development and talent management that the NHS has seen in over a decade.