Mark Hughes

On the 14 May 2026 the UK Government introduced the Health Bill in the House of Commons, also known as the NHS Modernisation Bill. This new legislation is intended to introduce two significant changes, joining up health information and abolishing NHS England. This article pulls together a number of different reflections shared on this bill as it proceeds through Parliament. 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 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. House of Commons This article provides a brief overview of patient safety issues raised in a debate in the House of Commons on Monday 1 June 2026, during the second reading of the Health Bill 2026-27. The second reading is the stage of the UK legislative process where Members of Parliament (MPs) debate the general principles and main purpose of a proposed piece of legislation. 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 King’s Speech 2026 sets out the programme of legislation that the UK Government intends to pursue in its next parliamentary session. This blog highlights six key takeaways from this speech from a patient safety perspective. On Wednesday 13 May 2026, Kings Charles III delivered his annual speech in the Lords Chamber at the State Opening of Parliament.[1] Written by the Government and delivered by the Monarch, the speech presents opportunity at the start of a new parliamentary session for a government to set out its plans for the year ahead. This year’s speech includes two pieces of proposed legislation that have, potentially, significant implications for patient safety: NHS Modernisation Bill Public Office (Accountability) Bill In this blog, we highlight six takeaways from these proposed bills from a patient safety perspective. 1. Future of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body The NHS Modernisation Bill includes several changes to the patient safety landscape in England. These involve the implementation of several key recommendations put forward in Dr Penny Dash’s Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape last year.[2] This includes the recommendation to transfer the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) functions to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In our response to the Dash Review, we stated our belief that HSSIB has an important independent role in the health system which should be retained.[3] There are understandable concerns about the potential for its independence to be compromised by its functions being transferred to the CQC.[4] [5] More broadly, we know that many staff working in healthcare do not feel confident raising concerns. As NHS Staff Survey results continue to illustrate, nearly two-fifths of staff say they do not feel safe to speak up about concerns.[6] Recognising the importance of staff feeling able to speak freely in investigations, HSSIB currently conducts these using a ‘safe space’ approach. This prohibits, on a legal basis, the unauthorised disclosure of protected material. Even if this legal assurance is maintained under these proposed changes, there still may be concerns that moving HSSIB into the CQC could potentially undermine staff confidence that confidentiality will be maintained. If confidence in the independence and confidentiality of HSSIB’s investigations is undermined, whether in reality or perception, this could compromise understanding of what is really happening on the ground. HSSIB’s ability to do this is an essential prerequisite to understand what the risks to patient safety are and the action needed to address these. We await further detail in the NHS Modernisation Bill on how these challenges will be addressed. 2. Embedding patient voice in national decision making Other notable recommendations from Dr Penny Dash’s review expected to feature in the NHS Modernisation Bill include: Transferring the functions of Healthwatch England to the Department of Health and Social Care. Developing a new Patient Experience Directorate in the Department. In our response to the Dash Review, we welcomed the proposal to create a new National Director of Patient Experience, alongside a Patient Experience Directorate. A new central body offers potential benefits for pooling expertise and resources. However, questions remain as to whether these changes could risk making the routes through which patient experience and concerns influence decision making less visible and more diffuse.[7] [8] [9] [10] It is vital that these changes improve the health systems capacity to listen and respond to patient experiences. We believe that an important element of this will be ensuring this new Patient Experience Directorate can benefit from regional and local experience and expertise. We would expect to see further detail setting this out in due course, considering how this will connect with local models for engaging with patients, families and carers. Specifically, we would also seek clarity on how this Directorate will work with local and national Patient Safety Partners, whose roles were not mentioned in the Dash Review. 3. Creating a new single patient record Another key strand of the NHS Modernisation Bill will be plans to create a new Single Patient Record. This is intended to “enable people to see their own health records securely on the NHS App, empowering them to make informed decisions about their own health”.[11] In our response to the 10 Year Health Plan for England, we stated our support for this initiative.[12] It is broadly acknowledged that if implemented effectively, this could make a real difference in improving joined-up communication in the NHS.[13] Patients not only need easy access to their records, but simple mechanisms to flag concerns and address any inaccuracies in a timely manner. Mistakes in records can create significant patient safety risks, and as illustrated by patient experiences shared with us on our patient safety platform the hub, amending these is often not a simple process.[14] 4. Introducing the Hillsborough Law The proposed Public Office (Accountability) Bill would put in place a new professional and legal Duty of Candour—meaning public officials must act with honesty and integrity at all times. This was previously announced in September 2025 and the Bill itself has already been tabled in Parliament.[15] We welcome this legislation. Patient Safety Learning believes it should be a requirement to be honest and transparent with patients and their families when something goes wrong, and this should be fundamental for all staff. The proposals in this new legislation have greater scope than the existing statutory Duty of Candour in the NHS, with a focus on systemic institutional behaviour. It is also notable that these provisions of the Bill will apply to the whole of the UK, not just England and Wales. 5. Abolition of NHS England The NHS Modernisation Bill will legislate to integrate NHS England’s functions into the Department of Health and Social Care, as first announced last year.[16] While we are still waiting further detail of what this will look like in practice, the existing National Patient Safety Team at NHS England is likely to be impacted by these changes. This Team is currently responsible for owning various patient safety programmes and policies and issuing safety warnings and recommendations. As stated in our response to the 10 Year Health Plan for England, an area of concern for us remains the lack of significant capacity to intervene if necessary for the purposes of improvement at a national level. Alongside this, there is also currently no national body able to commission or develop solutions that all organisations can use and adapt to improve patient safety. If healthcare providers identify a systemic issue that needs to be addressed because it affects other organisations, there is no national organisation that has the role or capacity to act on this. Instead, providers are left to find local solutions to system-wide concerns without a vehicle for widespread dissemination and evaluation. We believe this gap places a serious limitation on the healthcare system’s ability to reduce avoidable harm. It does little to address the inconsistencies in care across the country, with multiple different responses and workarounds to system-wide problems with varying levels of success. It is also a significant missed opportunity if we fail to take learning gained from provider organisations and apply this nationally for improvement in a meaningful way. This is an issue we think should be considered and addressed in the future merger of NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. 6. Changes to Integrated Care Boards Finally, the NHS Modernisation Bill will also include several changes for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), including: Refine the membership of ICBs. Placing new requirements for mayoral nominees to be on ICBs. Confirming their role as strategic commissioners, by transferring responsibilities for all but the most specialised commissioning functions to ICBs. In a joint blog with the Advancing Quality Alliance (Aqua) earlier this year, we noted that there is huge opportunity for ICBs to drive a systemic approach to patient safety through their strategic commissioning responsibilities.[17] [18] [19] However, there is currently significant variation in ICBs involvement in safety management activities.[13] With the right support ICBs have the potential to develop an integrated and coordinated approach to safety, reflecting patient care pathways across systems and ensuring consistency and collaboration. We would hope to see this included in these changes considered in the provisions of the NHS Modernisation Bill, and in the forthcoming new NHS Quality Strategy. References Prime Minister’s Office. 10 Downing Street. Oral statement to Parliament: The King’s Speech 2026. 13 May 2026. Department of Health and Social Care. Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape. 7 July 2025. Patient Safety Learning. Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape: Patient Safety Learning‘s response. 15 July 2025. Macrae C. Failing to learn? The NHS is losing its capacity for system-wide safety investigation. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2025; 118(10). Health Service Journal. Merging watchdog into CQC will ‘destroy’ independence. 26 February 2026. Patient Safety Learning. Patient Safety Learning’s response to the NHS Staff Survey Results 2025. 13 March 2026. Martin G, O’Hara J. Hope over experience? Patient and staff voice in the NHS after the Dash review. 1 2025;390:r1514. Cox C. Is the patient voice fading? Reflections on patient safety in a changing NHS. Patient Safety Learning. 28 January 2026. Morris L, et al. The Kings Fund. The future of patient voice: learning from the Healthwatch model. 18 March 2026. Patient Safety Learning. Patient voice, safety and the NHS 10 Year Plan: Reflections from the Patient Safety Forum 2026. 23 March 2026. Prime Minister’s Office. 10 Downing Street. King’s Speech 2026: background briefing notes. 13 May 2026. Patient Safety Learning. 10 Year Health Plan: Patient Safety Learning’s response. 14 August 2025. The Kings Fund. The King’s Fund responds to the King’s Speech and the introduction of the NHS Modernisation Bill. 13 May 2026. Anonymous. The digitalising of patient records – why patients MUST be involved. Patient Safety Learning. 16 April 2024. House of Commons. Public Office (Accountability Bill), Session 2024-26. Last updated 5 May 2026. Department of Health and Social Care. World’s largest quango scrapped under reforms to put patients first. 13 March 2025. Patient Safety Learning and Aqua. Patient safety and the new NHS Quality Strategy. 25 February 2026. Aqua. What Should Safety Look Like at a System Level. 6 April 2023. Patient Safety Learning. The elephant in the room: Patient safety and integrated carer systems. 11 July 2023. Health Services Safety Investigations Body. Safety management: accountability across organisational boundaries. 13 February 2025.

This online session will look at the essential role of robust data and learning from audit in helping identify risks, prevent harm, and build safer systems of care. Drawing on practical examples, the session will explore how data from audits and registries can be used to detect safety signals, understand where harm is occurring, and support action to reduce risk and improve patient safety. This session includes: Welcome from the Chair: Dr Jacqueline Andrews, Executive Medical Director, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and HQIP Trustee Using data for safety – A perspective from the Patient Safety Commissioner: Professor Henrietta Hughes OBE, Patient Safety Commissioner The role of the National Joint Registry in patient safety: Chris Boulton, Director of Operations, National Joint Registry Using national maternity data to drive patient safety improvement: Faith Sheils, Director of Midwifery, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust From incident to improvement: using Epilepsy12 data to commission a safer first seizure pathway: Dr Colin Dunkley, Consultant Paediatrician, Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Epillepsy12 Clinical Lead Update from Patient Safety Learning: Clare Wade, Director, Patient Safety Learning Register here.

This the next session of the JCI Patient Safety Grand Rounds will highlight global perspectives on how investing in patient safety generates measurable operational and economic value. You will hear from internationally recognised experts as they examine the economic value of patient safety and its impact on health systems, hospitals, patients, and society. Featured speakers include: Dr. Shankar Prinja, MD, DNB, MSc - Professor of Health Economics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research, Chandigarh, India Katherine de Bienassis, MPH - Health Policy Analyst, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), France Dr. Rachel A. Elliott, PhD, FRPharmS - Professor of Health Economics, University of Manchester; and Lead, Manchester Centre for Health Economics, United Kingdom You can register your place here. JCI-GrandRounds-June26-Flyer-Final.pdf

The 2025 review of patient safety in England, chaired by Dr Penny Dash, proposed changes intended to coordinate and rationalise patient safety roles and responsibilities. In this long-read article Patient Safety Learning reflects on NHS England’s proposals to implement one of these changes, the abolition of the National Guardian’s Office, which was introduced following Sir Robert Francis‘s 2015 review Freedom to Speak Up.[1] Last year’s Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape proposed a number of structural changes to the roles of existing national healthcare organisations. Among these was a recommendation to “streamline functions relating to staff voice”, suggesting there could be greater alignment between responsibilities that are currently divided between the National Guardian’s Office and NHS England. It also suggested there should be a greater role for healthcare providers in delivering Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) functions. The review recommended that: “Now that guardians have been established across providers, the responsibilities of the National Guardian for Freedom to Speak Up in the NHS and National Guardian’s Office should be incorporated into providers. This means that the distinct role of National Guardian is no longer required. As part of its wider inspection responsibilities, a core function of CQC should be to assess whether every commissioner and provider has effective Freedom to Speak Up functions, with the right skills and training.”[2] NHS England have subsequently held a short consultation on proposals for putting these changes into practice.[3] This month they published the outcome, setting out new details for revised responsibilities for FTSU across the NHS.[4] In this article we reflect on these proposals. Policy and guidance It appears that while NHS England will seek to incorporate the National Guardian’s Office’s guidance functions into its existing FTSU team, the policy function may largely cease. It states that these changes present an “opportunity to integrate Freedom to Speak Up insights into wider staff experience and patient safety policy development”. Patient Safety Learning believes that in practice this will result in a notable loss of the analysis and research by the National Guardian’s Office from recent years. NHS England are unlikely to be able to replicate some areas of this work credibly, without being seen as marking their own homework, for example analysing staff survey results.[5] There is also likely to be less capacity to look at how experiences of speaking up can vary amongst different groups of NHS staff. Previous research commissioned by the National Guardian’s Office has, for example, been able to highlight specific issues relating to speaking up and ethnicity and the experience of oversees-trained healthcare workers.[6] [7] NHS England itself is currently undergoing a reorganisation that will end in its functions being transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care. It is not clear how this may impact FTSU functions in the longer term. Or whether any arrangements will be put in place to ensure that high-level NHS oversight on speaking up policy and driving changes in safety culture is retained. It is plausible we could see a further reduction in national resources and capability in FTSU functions in the near future. Moving responsibilities to providers A central focus of these changes is to move more FTSU functions under the remit of individual NHS organisations, aligned with recommendations of Penny Dash’s patient safety review last year. This includes placing greater responsibility on them for ensuring local FTSU guardians are trained and supported. NHS England state that: “NHS healthcare providers and commissioners will be solely responsible for ensuring their guardians are appropriately trained, including ensuring all new guardians complete the foundation guardian training, which will be available through the e-Learning for Health platform. As part of trust-level Well-led assessments, the CQC will consider how effectively trust leadership ensures that guardians are appropriately trained.” Evidence indicates that there is wide variability in how the FTSU Guardian role operates across the NHS, being resourced and deployed differently by NHS Trusts.[8] [9] There is prospect of further divergence as more aspects of FTSU functions are delegated to individual organisations as part of these new arrangements. Increased oversight responsibilities for individual providers and commissioners may create further problems. Such a model may work well where organisations show a strong commitment to ‘speaking up’, but not for those with existing poor practices. As proposed, it appears CQC inspections would be the primary avenue to identify these issues going forwards. Inspections are by their nature infrequent. This may lead to a failure to identify, and respond to, problematic cultures and where there is a lack of support for listening to staff. We believe the NHS needs oversight arrangements to ensure that protections are in place for staff who want to raise concerns. The removal of the National Guardian’s Office is one less mechanism of independent accountability. National points of contact Currently the National Guardian’s Office maintains a central, public registry of FTSU Guardians. As part of NHS England’s proposed changes, this registry will close. Instead, all organisations will be required to list their guardian(s) on their website, with the CQC verifying this through inspections. This change will clearly simplify processes at a national level. However, it may have the potentially unintended consequence of making it more difficult for NHS staff to find information about their local FTSU Guardian. Given the variable layout and quality of NHS organisation websites, the accessibility of this information could differ significantly from Trust to Trust. We believe it is important that these changes do not increase barriers to staff accessing information about speaking up routes. We also note that requirements from NHS England to publish information on a providers websites are not always fulfilled. We highlighted an example of this last year, noting that a significant number of Trusts who have not published their Patient Safety Incident Response Plans, contrary to national guidance.[10] Closure of the public registry will be coupled with a closure of the separate FTSU contact point for enquiries, which currently receives approximately 4,000 enquiries a year, hosted by the National Guardian’s Office. Instead, queries will be re-directed to NHS England’s contact centre and escalated to its FTSU team if required. With access to the right information and guidance, this transition could be relatively smooth. The NHS England proposals note that most existing queries relate to training, guardian contacts, and data submissions and reporting. However, there may be an issue that on sensitive FTSU issues, staff may feel less able or willing to go through this route, as opposed to an enquiry line hosted by a body separate from NHS England. This applies all concerns that are raised, not just patient safety issues, with the majority of FTSU queries focused on staff behaviours (though these may also have implications for patient safety). With NHS England functions being moved into the Department of Health and Social Care, it is not yet clear how such queries will be addressed and support provided in future years. Data and insights Turning to data collection, NHS England states that its objective in making changes in this area is to: “Improve national data collection so it is more consistent and supports system learning and improvement, reduces administrative burden, and integrates more effectively with existing NHS systems to generate meaningful insights.” The National Guardian’s Office currently collects quantitative and qualitative FTSU data from all guardians every quarter and publishes the quantitative data. When it has closed, NHS England states that it will continue to collect quantitative data from NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards through the NHS national data collection process. However, it will pause national data collection for primary care and independent health providers. It is hard to envision how ceasing to collect FTSU data in relation to primary care and independent health providers is an improvement on the current arrangements. The proposals note that NHS England will “review” FTSU arrangements for these sectors, with no indication on whether this will re-start. We hope they will re-consider this decision in the long term. Looking ahead The National Guardian’s Office and FTSU Guardians were introduced following Sir Robert Francis‘s 2015 review Freedom to Speak Up.[1] Over ten years later many of the problems it highlighted around speaking up and the presence of blame cultures in the NHS continue to persist, presenting barriers to improving patient safety. The existing FTSU structures are seen to have made improvements in some areas, but have not addressed, and would not be able to address solely, the underlying systemic causes of these culture problems. As the most recent results of the NHS Staff Survey have shown, there has been no significant improvement in responses to questions on reporting, speaking up and acting on patient safety concerns in recent years.[11] These issues form a recurring theme across inquiries into major patient safety scandals. They are also reflected in the shocking experiences and testimonies of whistleblowers, such as those highlighted in our Speaking up for patient safety interview series.[12] It is notable that in this new document outlining changes to FTSU functions, there is no significant mention of the importance of protecting staff (including FTSU Guardians themselves) who raise concerns. Tackling these problems needs a greater focus, on creating a culture in healthcare that supports raising, discussing and addressing the risks of unsafe care. This needs to happen at both a national and organisational level. As part of this there should be at least the maintenance of support, if not improvement on the current arrangements, for local FTSU Guardians. This includes the ability to coordinate and to develop evaluation and impact frameworks that enable learning and good practice to be shared and consistently implemented. It remains to be seen if these new arrangements provide this, or if the loss of a separate National Guardian’s Office ultimately has a negative impact on patient safety. References Robert Francis QC. Freedom to speak up: An independent review into creating an open and honest reporting culture in the NHS. February 2015. Department of Health and Social Care. Review of patient safety across the heath and care landscape. 7 July 2025. NHS England. Future of Freedom to Speak Up: engagement pack. 28 January 2026. NHS England. The future of Freedom to Speak Up. 16 April 2026. National Guardian’s Office. Listening to the silence: What does the Staff Survey tell us about speaking up in the NHS? 24 July 2024. Roger Kline and Ghiyas Somra. Difference Matters: The impact of ethnicity on speaking up. September 2021. National Guardian’s Office. Listening and Learning: Amplifying the voices of overseas-trained workers. May 2025. Aled Jones et al. Implementation of ‘Freedom to Speak Up Guardians’ in NHS acute and mental health trusts in England: the FTSUG mixed-methods study. 1 August 2022. Roger Kline. Patient safety and speaking up—learning from the literature. 11 March 2026. Patient Safety Learning. What do Patient Safety Incident Response Plans tell us about how the NHS is approaching safety investigations? 7 May 2025. Patient Safety Learning. Patient Safety Learning’s response to the NHS Staff Survey Results 2025. 13 March 2026. Patient Safety Learning. Key themes emerging from our ‘Speaking up for patient safety’ interview series. 14 May 2025.

The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare are hosting a live Ask Me Anything on how artificial intelligence (AI) is being regulated in healthcare. This is your opportunity to hear directly from the National AI Commission and ask questions about what this means for you. Register now and submit your questions in advance. In this session, you can: Learn more about the Commission’s work Ask questions about how AI is regulated and how this may develop Hear open and honest responses You can ask about anything relating to the work of AI Commission , including: Patient safety How the Commission makes decisions What AI could mean for your care

Despite decades of national efforts, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continue to rise. NCDs are long-lasting health conditions, that typically develop slowly and progress over time. They include cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and strokes), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. NCDs affect far more than health outcomes: they influence how people live and work, strain families and communities, and impose a growing burden on health systems and economies. This report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assesses the health and economic benefits of tackling NCDs. It highlights how countries that succeed in reducing key health risks such as obesity and tobacco use can save lives, ease pressure on health budgets and unlock substantial economic gains. World Patient Safety Day on the 17 September 2026 is focused on the theme “Safe care for non-communicable diseases”.

In healthcare, developing a culture of psychological safety is essential to ensuring patient safety; a priority identified in the NHS Patient Safety Strategy. In the context of 10 Year Health Plan for England and healthcare leaders' commitments to psychological safety across all developed nations, it is essential that the safety of patients and staff is at the core of its design and delivery to avoid harm and reduce incidents. If the healthcare system is to truly be transformed over the next decade, matters of culture need to be addressed. At this event, attendees will: Meet experts in culture, clinicians, patient safety who will be highlighting why changes need to be made and how individual healthcare professionals can apply good practice to address the challenges. Gain a deep understanding of what psychological safety is and why it is essential to promote and deliver a safety culture in healthcare. Comprehend the actions needed to improve psychological safety in healthcare - what does good look like? Be provided with an opportunity to make personal commitments for better patient safety. Opportunity to engage with key note presentations, panel session discussions, and listen to personal experience of those than have been damaged by poor culture. Learning outcomes will include: Attendees will be able to identify what psychological safety is, how it shows up in team behavior, and how it differs from trust, comfort, or simply being “nice. Be able to apply practical strategies to build psychologically safe environments by learning specific behaviors - such as framing work as learning, modeling vulnerability, and responding productively to patient safety incidents and risk. Identify, evaluate, and address barriers to psychological safety. Attendees will be able to spot common organizational, cultural, and interpersonal obstacles and use structured approaches to reduce fear, friction, and silence. Find out more and register here.

The renewed Women’s Health Strategy sets out how the UK Government will improve women’s health and healthcare over next 10 years. The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will apply the 10 Year Health Plan’s new care model to make much faster, more decisive progress focused on four health outcomes: The first commitment - and the golden thread of this strategy - is to make women’s voices and choices central in healthcare. The Government will: Establish the women’s voices partnership in 2027, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making, and - over time - regional planning and delivery. The partnership will have a focus on organisations representing women most excluded from traditional services. Develop and implement PREMs, and where appropriate PROMs, for core women’s health pathways over the next 5 years, starting with gynaecological outpatient procedures. Help reduce variation in how GPs listen to and respond to women, using GP Patient Survey data to launch a quality improvement programme within 2 years to help GPs identify problems. Within 3 years, co-produce with women standards of care for the delivery of gynaecological procedures such as hysteroscopy, ensuring all women give informed consent and are offered a choice of pain relief. Improve access to contraception, including ensuring all women can access emergency contraception for free from a pharmacy and encouraging simpler access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) within 2 years. Support the sustainability of abortion services, including changing NHS payments and supporting integrated care boards (ICBs) to implement the NHS abortion commissioning guidance. And we will continue safe access zones outside abortion clinics - all within one year. Work with stakeholders to review the evidence for, and implications of, rolling out a graded model of care for repeated pregnancy loss. Improve care and support between pregnancies for marginalised communities, working together with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maternity Disparities Consortium. We will engage marginalised communities to co-develop, co-implement and co-evaluate care and support before and between pregnancies, providing the UK’s first blueprint for such care by 2030. Improve perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship and infant feeding support in 75 local councils. Backed by over £900 million, through the Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme we are taking action to create a more integrated, accessible system of support right in the heart of local neighbourhoods. Expand our world-leading prenatal genomic testing offer to provide vital information to women during pregnancy and to support reproductive decision making Second, we will transform NHS performance in services that matter most to women The Government will: Launch a new programme to improve education for girls about their menstrual health, investing an additional £1 million from this year to support targeted work in schools and community settings. This will support girls’ knowledge about menstrual health and when to seek healthcare. Introduce a menopause question into the routine NHS Health Check this year, raising awareness of symptoms and giving women the confidence to seek timely help. Shift women’s health services into primary care and community settings, including a single point of access for gynaecology referrals and redesigned clinical pathways for heavy periods, menopause and uro-gynaecology within 3 years. Fund this year a specialist centre in each region for group-based approaches to women’s health pathways including contraception, heavy periods, uro-gynaecology, and menopause. Each regional specialist centre will act as a demonstrator and centre of excellence, supporting local areas to design, implement and evaluate group-based pathways. We will roll these out in areas of highest health need or highest health inequality first. Prioritise menstrual problems (caused by issues such as endometriosis, fibroids and adenomyosis) and menopause as 2 of the first 9 pathways to be established in the new virtual hospital, NHS Online, launching in 2027. Support early diagnosis of osteoporosis and improved bone health by funding 20 new dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanners in priority locations, enabled by £2.6 million investment in the financial year ending 2026. This is on top of the £1.9 million already invested in the financial year ending 2025. This will provide an estimated 60,000 scans per year and improve image quality for patients. Improve safety in maternity services, providing better care and improve women’s experiences around birth through the NHS Maternal Care Bundle and acting on the findings of the independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation and the Secretary of State’s National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce. Improve facilities to ensure bereaved parents have appropriate spaces. This year we allocated up to £9 million to over 40 trusts to enhance their bereavement facilities or estates. Third, we will support all women to lead healthy, prosperous lives The Government will: Deliver our aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, including rolling out home testing kits for human papilloma virus (HPV), providing greater convenience and access. We will make HPV vaccination available in local community pharmacies to reach those who missed school vaccinations. Both are available from this year. Expand genomic testing for inherited causes of major diseases within a year, including BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with higher lifetime risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Roll out breast pain and post menopausal bleeding clinics nationally by the end of 2026 and invest in our wider community diagnostic estate as we deliver our new National Cancer Plan for England. Tackle the biggest causes of death and poor health in women by improving our focus on cardiovascular disease risk management and care, publishing a new modern service framework this year. Tackle rising obesity rates - a risk for multiple women’s health problems, including some cancers. We will support women to lead more active lives and improve their diets through campaigns, investment in sports, digital tools and supporting access to healthier food. Support women to drink less alcohol and smoke less - including creating the first smoke-free generation. Improve care for women living with frailty and dementia, publishing a modern service framework for frailty and dementia. Halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade. As part of the health system’s contribution, we will invest up to £50 million to transform support for victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation across every NHS region in England, as well as rolling out a domestic abuse and sexual violence referral service and additional investment for victims and survivors. Improve support for women sleeping rough through helping councils to design and deliver effective outreach and services alongside NHS services. Support women to enter and remain in work through better treatment and management of MSK conditions. MSK conditions are one of the leading conditions reported by people who are economically inactive (including due to long-term sickness), with women at higher risk than men. Support women affected by menopause in their jobs by introducing new requirements on employers with 250 or more employees to publish an action plan including support for employees experiencing menopause, starting in 2027, subject to secondary legislation. Partner with Vanguard employers as part of the Keep Britain Working Review to test how we can better support good health in work - with a focus on women’s health across the life course. Give carers more power and convenience through the NHS App. When fully rolled out, the new My Carer function in the NHS App will allow people to securely prove they are providing care, book appointments and communicate with their loved one's care team. Fourth, we will create an approach to research and development that works for and empowers women The Government will: Accelerate the deployment and spread of innovations that benefit women’s health, launching a FemTech healthcare challenge within 2 years with a pot of £1.5 million. This will enable systems to work with promising FemTech developers addressing areas of unmet need, with a focus on community service models addressing health inequalities. Launch the NIHR R&D Innovation Catalyst this year to provide wrap around support for high priority innovations, with R&D funding available across all translational phases of research if main milestones are met. We will ensure the R&D Innovation Catalyst considers women’s health innovations throughout its operation, both for reproductive and pregnancy conditions, and by ensuring equity in its approach to innovations for any disease. Ensure women are not left behind in research. From now, NIHR will only fund research that appropriately considers sex-based differences. We will also make it easier for women to participate in clinical trials by integrating the Be Part of Research service on the NHS App - and in time automatically match patients with studies based on their own health data and interests. Support female founders in health and care. Within a year, through the NIHR we will launch a new accelerator for female founders with innovations addressing women’s health priorities. Our new programme will provide funding and support through a programme including mentoring and advice for entrepreneurs, market testing and access, scale-up and commercialisation models.

On Tuesday 19 May, a new toolkit to support adults at risk of self-harm or suicide will be launched at The University of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery, as part of a free and interactive event open to all. Jay’s Personalised Safety Planning Toolkit, co-designed by researchers, people with lived experience, and healthcare professionals, is an evidence-based, practical guide that offers a more personalised approach to safety planning within health and care settings, offering meaningful support to help save more lives. The Safety Planning Toolkit can be used by: Individuals themselves Families, friends, and wider support networks Health and social care professionals The launch event is open to anyone with an interest in safety planning for self-harm and suicide prevention, including practitioners from across health and social care, as well as individuals who may use safety planning themselves, along with family, friends and other support people. Book your place here.