The government’s hugely anticipated 10-year health plan for England has been published without a delivery strategy for making the wide-ranging reforms it proposes happen, it has emerged.
Prime minister Keir Starmer and health secretary Wes Streeting launched the 168-page Fit for the future document this morning as part of the government’s similarly titled NHS “mission” commitment.
While the document covers a range of reforms, including the rollout of “neighbourhood health centres” and the abolition of NHS England, it is lacking a section that was originally expected to focus on “immediate tasks” for the next three years.
Health Service Journal reported today that it had seen a draft copy of the plan last week that included a chapter titled “Change begins”. HSJ said it understood the chapter was due to be written by former health secretary and current Department of Health and Social Care lead non-executive director Alan Milburn.
The trusted news source said the chapter’s omission had “surprised many very senior NHS figures close to the plan’s development” and that the lack of a delivery plan was at odds with expectations that the document would explain how change will happen.
In an interview with HSJ, published alongside the 10-year plan, NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said the document was designed to create “energy and enthusiasm” and is not intended as detailed guidance.
Mackey said detailed frameworks and guidance on several key areas will be developed in partnership with local leaders over the summer and published before winter.
Launching the plan, health secretary Streeting acknowledged that there will be challenges in enacting the reforms it proposes.
“Delivering this plan will not be easy, but neither was the creation of the National Health Service,” he said.
“If we succeed, we will be able to say with pride, echoed through the remaining decades of this century, that we were the generation that built an NHS fit for the future and a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.”